


Return of an Alpha

by Miz636



Series: Rise of an Alpha [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Good Slytherins, Hogwarts United, Mass Pranking, No Bashing, Slytherin Harry, Universe Alteration, Well-Meaning Dumbledore, Years 4-5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-02 18:05:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 54
Words: 240,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4069483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miz636/pseuds/Miz636
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For three years, Harry has been Becoming Alpha of Hogwarts. Now another Alpha is returning, bringing with him darkness, chaos, and battle. Watch as sides line up for war, and people and society change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the sequel to Becoming Alpha. This is a series already posted on FF.net and SIYE, but I'm now posting it here on ao3. I hope you enjoy. :)

Harry looked around the hallway he and Sirius had landed in with interest. The walls were crimson with gold trimming while the flooring was mahogany. It looked new and well done. Of course, with magic renovating an entire house wouldn't be as hard as it would be for a Muggle.

Sirius led Harry down the hallway and into the living room, and Harry had to smile. It seemed that someone had been smart as each wall of the living room was a different House color, the trimmings the other House color.

"Samuel and Daniella convinced me that you prefer it if I used all of the House colors," Sirius admitted quietly as Harry turned in a circle. "I wanted the house to be mostly Gryffindor colors, but they reminded me that you're a Slytherin and that using all the colors would be fairer."

"I like it," Harry told Sirius with a grin as he took in the new leather furniture, the low table for snacks, the armchairs, the desks in a couple of corners of the room, and the cabinets and drawers along the walls.

"My family tree used to be on that wall," Sirius mentioned, pointing at the Slytherin wall, "but we decided that we should make a new one in the study along with a Potter family tree and one that we make together to show the family we've made without blood being a part of it."

At hearing that Sirius had a copy of his family tree Harry stared at him momentarily with tears in the corners of his eyes before lunging at him and hugging him tightly.

Smiling, Sirius showed Harry the kitchen, which was in Hufflepuff colors, once he had calmed down. That made sense seeing as the Hogwarts kitchens were near the Hufflepuff Common Room, and this house definitely had a Hogwarts theme going for it. There was also a nice long dining table and lots of kitchen appliances that Harry was pretty sure he could work if he had to cook anything.

Sirius then took Harry into the study, which was done in Gryffindor colors like the hallway. On one wall was a large, green tapestry of a family tree with BLACK FAMILY TREE at the top of it. The wall opposite it had a red tapestry with the Potter family tree on it.

Harry walked straight up to it and just stared at it, not really taking anything in. The idea that his family had been around for so long and had been so large was just mind-blowing. He knew he would be looking at this wall a lot in the future.

Finally tearing his eyes away from his family tree, Harry looked behind the desk and was surprised to see a yellow tapestry with two trees on it, but these trees were different. Walking closer to it, Harry realized that the two names on it were his and Sirius', and they had a bunch of lines extending from them. Obviously, this was to be the family tree of their family in everything but blood. Sirius just hadn't gotten around to working on it much.

Turning to face Sirius, he could see that Sirius was also holding back tears as he looked at the two tapestries. Harry had to go hug his godfather, and they held each other until they had calmed down.

"We'll work on that tapestry together this summer," Sirius whispered softly to Harry before leading him from the room.

The second floor had a whole hallway of guest rooms, and Sirius showed each of them to Harry. Three were in each of the House colors, obviously so that his friends could share them. Then there were a couple more in a soft blue for people who didn't want to stay in those rooms — probably the adults.

When Sirius got to the third floor, he stopped outside of a specific room and didn't let Harry enter right away as he stood there looking at the door that looked as if something had once been on it.

"This was Regulus' room," Sirius said quietly. "I think that he would have been honored that you're going to have his room now."

"I think so too," Harry agreed after he got over the feelings he felt when he realized how much Sirius must love him to give him his younger brother's old bedroom.

Sirius opened the door, and Harry took a step into his new room before he froze.

"Whoa," he gasped as he stared.

"Not bad, eh?" Sirius laughed, obviously amused by Harry's reaction.

"It's the best!" Harry exclaimed as he walked inside more.

The ceiling was an emerald green with snakes of silver actually moving around on it. The carpet was a royal blue and quite soft beneath his shoes, which Harry kicked off quickly to feel it on his feet. He was surrounded by a forest that had been charmed to move, but that wasn't the best part of it.

No, the best part was what was in the forest — animals. He looked around and saw animals all around the room, some in the trees, some running between them, and some just resting under them. What made it even better was that each animal represented one of his friends in their Animagus form.

Looking closer, he noticed Padfoot was high up in a tree that had a fallen tree leaning against it, watching over them all. Nearby, Prongs was watching as he say beneath a tree while Moony appeared from between the trees. A doe joined Prongs, and Harry knew that it had to be his mother. A closer look showed lilies were at the roots of the trees as well, and Harry smiled slightly at them.

Turning away from the walls, Harry looked at his bed and smiled when he saw that the bedding was Slytherin colors. He had a wardrobe in his room as well, and Harry could tell that Mr. Davis — no, Samuel, he had told Harry to call him now — had helped find the furniture for the room. The desk reminded him of a mixture of the one from Tracey's home and the one in his Slytherin dorm at Hogwarts.

"This is the best," Harry said as he went over to Sirius and hugged the Marauder in thanks, a smile on his face.

"Only the best for you," Sirius replied as he hugged his godson. "Now come on, we've still got a bit more to see!"

Harry followed Sirius across the cold floor to the room on the other side of the hall, which had Sirius' name on the door. As Harry expected, the entire room was Gryffindor colors, but it also had posters of Muggle models, his friends from Hogwarts, and even a couple of his younger brother, Regulus.

When Sirius stopped outside the last room on the third floor, Harry was surprised to realize that they weren't going inside.

"This was my parents' room," Sirius muttered quietly. "I thought it was better to not use it for now; it can be a guest room if necessary."

After that, Sirius led Harry up into the attic, and Harry was quite surprised to see that it wasn't a storage area but a room expanded with magic so that it could be a training room. In a way, it reminded Harry of the Room of Requirement, but obviously not done by magic.

"We figured you and your friends would need a place to train, and this should work for you," Sirius told Harry, obviously worried about his reaction.

"This is perfect!" he told his godfather. "We'll have room to spread out and train. I mean, you've got extra swords over here," Harry pointed to a corner of the room where spare swords were held in a rack, "targets and throwing knives galore over there," this time he pointed to the other side of the room, "and mats covering almost the entire room so that none of us get hurt!" Harry walked onto a mat and bounced his feet on it to prove his point.

"We couldn't ask for anything more." Harry turned to smile at his godfather, and had to hold in the laugh that threatened to come up as he watched the older man smile in relief.

"That's good," Sirius said weakly with a small smile. "Why don't you go unpack and then just hang out around the house for a bit? I'm going to go get us some groceries and we can fight over who cooks tonight."

"Oh no, I'm not eating anything that you make!" Harry exclaimed, pretending to be worried as he backed away in mock fear. " _I'm_ cooking the meals in this house."

"Oh, fine, way to make me feel terrible," Sirius said before he broke out in laughter and Harry's façade fell as he too went into hysterics.

Once they had calmed down, Sirius went to go shopping while Harry went into his room. After putting clothes into the wardrobe, school stuff into the desk, and personal stuff into his bedside table, Harry sat down on his bed and just looked around his room, thinking.

Compared to the Dursleys, this place was paradise. Unfortunately, Harry was beginning to feel the sadness of leaving Tracey's house, even if he was truly excited to be living with his godfather. It was a big change, and he would have to get used to it.

Harry was distracted by the walls, and he began to pay closer attention to the animals running around in them.

As he watched, the silver-blond fox jumped onto the almost-black wolf, biting the dark fur to hold on. The wolf shook itself as hard as it could, and the fox leapt off just in time for a reddish-brown lynx to jump on top of the wolf. This time, the wolf sat down calmly until the lynx got upset by the immediate surrender and got off, leaving itself open for a sudden pounce by the wolf. The two animals rolled over and over, wrestling for control while the fox watched in amusement before leaving the pair alone.

Harry had to laugh as he looked above the fox and saw a raven fly down in front of it to distract the fox as a monkey took a bunch of berries and dropped them on the light-colored fox, dyeing the fur a mixture of red, blue, and purple. The fox yelped silently in surprise before making a silent noise, obviously calling for backup that it got in the form of a golden eagle, which went after the raven so that the fox could concentrate on the monkey.

Turning away again, Harry saw a brown fox jump on top of a lion, whose fur was a light golden color, probably because there was some blond mixed into the fur. The lion roared silently, drawing the attention of a nearby dark brown bear, who rushed over to the lion and hit the fox on the head sharply so that it got off. A light brown cat jumped on top of the bear's head from a branch above the group, its claws digging into the fur. Roaring from the bear drew the attention of the wolf, and both it and the lynx rushed over and began to break up the fight, all of the animals stopping moments after the wolf began to growl.

A horse galloped over and the cat got on its back so that it was out of the fight for a while. The horse brought the cat over to where a falcon was resting its wings on a branch. A cheetah and a tiger were both resting under the same tree, so the cat joined the pair and stretched before lying down calmly, as if the fight had never happened.

On the other side of the room, away from the others, three animals were close to another group of animals. Two dogs, one black and the other a dirty blond, were wrestling on the ground while a doe shook its head at them and rolled its eyes. A cougar seemed to be mimicking the doe, which drew a smile from Harry. In the trees above the pair, a white owl with a tinge of blond to its feathers was watching as well.

Another wolf, this one more of a mix of light brown and gray, was looking at a hawk, whose beak was moving in what was obviously a conversation with the wolf, a stag standing next to the doe looking at the pair with interest, though it didn't join in on the conversation.

Harry had a pleased smile on his face as he continued to watch the animals, turning back to the other animals as he thought about their human counterparts.

All of Harry's closest friends were Animagi, and it was just another thing to bring them closer together. Each and every one of his friends had agreed to Harry's view on the wizarding world, and it changed their own views. Hogwarts hadn't been the same since Harry had been Sorted into Slytherin and had begun showing the others that the different Houses and heritages didn't make a difference.

Draco, the silvery-blond fox, was probably one of the more interesting additions to Harry's group of friends. As a Malfoy, Draco had grown up with completely opposite ideals from the ones Harry had introduced to Hogwarts, yet Draco had watched the group during their first year and seen what they were about. In a moment of surprise for most involved, Draco had told Harry and his other friends that he wanted to be part of the group as a friend, though he had to hide it from his other friends so that his father wouldn't know.

Since that day, Draco had been less of a rude idiot when his other friends and the older Slytherins weren't around, and a perfect pure-blood when they were around, mostly so that his father wouldn't realize that Draco had changed. It had been a huge turning point in Draco Malfoy's life, for he had changed from a Death Eater-in-training to someone learning how to fight to protect himself, his friends, and his loved ones. If Lord Voldemort ever came back, Draco wouldn't be willing to join him, and they all knew it.

The next friend Harry looked at was Theodore Nott, better known as Theo to his friends and the other fox in the group. He, too, had been raised by a Death Eater father, but he had been taught to watch, listen, learn, and then decide what to do, unlike Draco. Unfortunately for Theo's father, the talent had allowed Theo to realize that what Harry had been saying was better than what his own father was saying, so he too joined Harry, though much earlier than Draco had. In fact, now knowing Theo's past, Harry was a bit surprised the boy had joined Harry's side so soon, as he was probably the least likely of his first four friends to have joined him.

If Theo was the least likely to join Harry's ideals and friends, Tracey Davis was probably the most likely. Her father was Muggle-born and her mother pure-blood. They were known as a neutral family as they hadn't chosen a side in the first war against Voldemort, and they also didn't mind most dark magic. Of course, if asked what side they would be on now, they would say against Voldemort, though maybe not fighting alongside Albus Dumbledore.

Tracey was the Slytherin in Harry's year who was closest to him, and one of the two people to actually understand him. All of their friends were claiming they were twins in everything but blood, and their birthdays were one day apart, with Harry's being first. When Harry's friends had first found out about his relatives and his home life with them, Tracey and her parents had given him a home with them, and they, along with Sirius, were basically parents to him.

Daphne Greengrass was Tracey's closest friend in Slytherin besides Harry, and one of Harry's good friends. She was the lion of the group, and it amused them all to no end that a Slytherin was a lion Animagus seeing as the lion was Gryffindor's mascot, and Slytherins and Gryffindors were mortal enemies when it came to a lot of things.

From her family's point of view, Daphne's friendship with Harry was a good thing as they were a dark family when it came to magic knowledge, but they had stayed neutral during the war because they didn't want to side with either Voldemort or Dumbledore. Many neutral families saw Harry as a third choice, and it was probably true if Harry ever thought about it seeing as he didn't have a bias against House or blood, yet he didn't wish to side with either Dumbledore or Voldemort.

Daphne's sister Astoria was the golden eagle, and she was two years younger than Daphne and also a Slytherin. She was just as sly and ambitious as the rest, even if she was younger. In fact, some of Harry's friends outside of his closest group were afraid of her even though she was younger than them.

Blaise Zabini made up the final person in Harry's Slytherin friends from his year, and he was the bear who had hit Theo's fox over the head. His mother had married seven times and all of her husbands had turned up dead, leaving her with a lot of money. It meant that his mother didn't mind what he did all that much as long as he kept out of trouble and didn't give her a terrible image by the entire wizarding world, which he wasn't.

Outside of his Slytherin friends, Harry had befriended the Weasley twins, Fred and George, who were two years older than him and pranksters. Their forms were different, which had surprised a lot of people, but they had fit. Fred was the monkey while George was the raven.

Their family was different as it was a pure light family and known as blood traitors to Death Eaters and the darker pure-blood families. It had taken a lot for their mother to accept the fact that they were friends with Slytherins and that they weren't so bad. Harry hadn't heard their father's view on it all that much, but the little he had heard was that their father didn't mind, but wanted to make his own opinion on it all.

The twins had a younger brother, Ron, who had caused trouble for Harry and his friends in their first year and second year, but their third year had been different. Ron had begun looking at Harry differently, mostly because he had saved his younger sister, Ginny, at the end of her first year. It meant that he wasn't bothering them, and he had even begun talking with Harry once in a while, though not all that often. At the rate he was going, Ron might actually be Harry's friend sometime during the beginning of fourth year.

Ginny Weasley was the only other person to truly know Harry. The two of them had become close after Harry had saved her from the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry knew that some of their friends were betting on when he would ask her out, which made them both roll their eyes. Of course, if his friends had seen his walls and watched the lynx and wolf wrestling, they would say it would mean they were meant for each other as he was the wolf and she the lynx. Both of them could speak Parseltongue, which was the language of snakes, because of Lord Voldemort, who had once been known as Tom Riddle, and it had given them something else in common to bring them closer. Now, Harry didn't know what he would do without her.

Hermione Granger was a Muggle-born Gryffindor in his year, and she was smart enough to be in Ravenclaw. She was the cougar and a brilliant witch. Neville Longbottom, the falcon, was the only other Gryffindor to be friends with Harry in their year, and he was a pure-blood from a light family that had been pretty close to his own family. Neville had grown up with his grandmother and she didn't mind Harry as she couldn't believe James and Lily Potter's son going dark.

Susan Bones, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Hannah Abbott were the Hufflepuffs in Harry's year that were Animagi, and they were the tiger, the cheetah, and the horse respectively. Susan was a pure-blood, Justin a Muggle-born, and Hannah a half-blood, but none of their families minded their friendship with Harry.

Padma Patil, Terry Boot, and Luna Lovegood were Ravenclaws in the group, though Luna was a year younger while Padma and Terry were Harry's age. Padma was the hawk, Terry the dirty-blond dog, and Luna the owl of the group. Luna was the only pure-blood while the other two were half-bloods.

All of them made up Harry closest friends, and he didn't know what he'd be without them. There had been two possibilities when Harry had been Sorted into Slytherin: He made a lot of friends or he had absolutely none. Luckily, Harry had managed the former and not the latter, and that would have made a huge difference on Hogwarts.

Sighing, Harry stood slowly and walked over to the stag and doe, which were still standing under the same tree as before. He reached out with his right hand and placed it on the doe before moving it across the wall to the stag. His other hand had reached under his T-shirt and pulled out a gold chain to hold onto the rings hanging from it.

The stag was his father as he, too, had been an Animagus. His mother was the doe because, even though she had never been an Animagus, her Patronus had been a doe. The rings on the chain around his neck were their wedding rings, and among the few things he truly had from his parents.

It was at times like these that it was hardest for Harry to think about them, for he had never known them personally even though their friends from their Hogwarts years had told him stories. Sometimes it's impossible to replace the real thing with stories, and this was one of those times.

Harry closed his eyes for a moment before opening them, putting the chain back under his shirt, and walking back to his bed to lie down. He closed his eyes and fell asleep on top of his bedding.

…

Waking up slowly, Harry looked around the room to realize that he had fallen asleep. Rubbing his eyes after taking his glasses off, he began to wake up more. After cleaning his glasses of their smudges with his shirt, Harry put them back on and stood up.

Harry headed down to the kitchen, guessing that if there was anywhere Sirius would be, it would be in there. As he got closer, he heard Sirius' bark of laughter and a softer, calmer voice saying something. If he had to guess, Harry would say that Remus had arrived.

"Moony!" Harry called as he opened the door into the kitchen and saw the older man, rushing over to hug him.

"Look what the cat dragged in!" Sirius laughed.

"Two things, Sirius," Harry said as he pulled out of the hug, not letting Remus say anything as he wanted to. "First: Do you mean me or Moony? Second: Don't you mean wolf?"

Harry smiled innocently at Sirius as Remus broke out into laughter at the confused look on Sirius' face. Slowly, Sirius figured out what Harry meant and let out a bark of laughter.

"Nice one Pup," he said. "I meant you, but I guess it could be either of you, and yes, it probably should be wolf instead of cat."

"I gather you like the house," Remus said to Harry as the teen sat down at the table.

"Oh yeah!" Harry exclaimed happily, his green eyes shining. "It's the best!"

"I'm glad you like it, Pup, but I've got some bad news to tell you," Sirius said, his voice a lot more serious than before and with an edge to it.

Harry turned to face his godfather, but the only response he got to his questioning look was the newspaper Sirius was holding out for him to read. One glance at the title on the front page of the Evening Prophet and Harry almost dropped the paper, but he managed to hold onto it as he read the article.

**_SECOND PERSON ESCAPES FROM AZKABAN!_ **

**_PETER PETTIGREW AT LARGE AND DANGEROUS!_ **

_In a startling development, a second person has escaped from Azkaban, yet again connected to the same case as last time. Peter Pettigrew escaped late last night, though no one seems to know how he did it; if they do know, it's being kept tightly under wraps. Minister warns the public to keep an eye out and to be prepared for anything. Pettigrew has a wand he stole and is dangerous._

_For more on Pettigrew, Black, and anything else relating to it go to pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 11._

"He's going to try and find Voldemort, isn't he?" Harry asked in a resigned voice. "Voldemort is going to get a follower back, and probably his body in the long run."

"That's what Sam, Daniel, and I believe," Sirius admitted softly, understanding Harry's resigned look but not liking it. "War is coming soon."

"Then we'd best spend the time we have left having fun!" Harry said as he forced his mood to turn around completely, quite used to putting on fake fronts after three years of being the leader of his friends.

Sirius and Remus exchanged looks as Harry stood up and went over to join Kreacher, their house-elf, by the stove so that he could help the elf cook dinner. Harry knew that the pair was looking at him worriedly, but this was something that Harry wouldn't truly let himself think about until he was in bed.

Just as Harry sat down at the table to eat, he winced and his left hand went right to his pocket, which had suddenly started burning. Muttering darkly under his breath about Daphne, Harry pulled out a three-fold emerald green journal with a pencil resting in each of the folds. Activating the Journal, Harry saw that a bunch of his friends were already using the colored Journal mode.

_Harry: Yes, Daphe?_

_Daphne: You haven't been on since we got home. We've been waiting for you._

_Harry: Let me guess, Trace and Gin told you to leave me alone and let me sign on when I was ready while Theo annoyed you like crazy. Eventually, you gave in to Trace and Gin's advice, but you've gotten so impatient that you had to make my Journal burn just as I was sitting down to eat dinner._

_Tracey: That about sums it up._

_Gin: I actually think that Harry has all of us pegged down pretty well. Anyway, how's the new house, Harry?_

_Harry: You all are going to_ love _it! It's amazing! By the way, Daphe, that's part of the reason I haven't been on yet today. That, plus the fact that I fell asleep as I looked around my room._

_Theo: What's there to see in a room?_

_Tracey: Daddy's told me that his walls are great entertainment, but he won't tell me anything else._

_Harry: The walls of my room could keep all of us distracted for hours if we let them unless we got bored of watching and felt like mimicking them._

_Blaise: What in the world does that mean?_

_Harry: *Zips lips tightly* Not telling._

_Astoria: Argh… he's in one of those moods again, isn't he?_

_Harry: First of all, I am not in one of those moods; second, you're all going to love my room; third, I'm going to get off and eat. I'll talk to all of you in a bit._

Harry shut his Journal, shrunk it, and put it back into his pocket as if he did it every day, which he did. Looking up, he saw that Sirius and Remus were staring at him in amazement.

"What? Daphne got annoying so I had to make sure she wouldn't annoy me for a while," he told the two Marauders.

"Do you all do that every day?" Remus finally asked.

"You're sure you're not going to be a professor at Hogwarts again?" Harry asked as he thought about it.

"I might eventually come back, but not for a few years," Remus said.

"Have you ever noticed people write a lot during class when not practicing spells?" Harry asked him, purposely answering the original question with a question.

"Yes, but I expect they were just taking notes," Remus informed him.

"If they were above third year they were most likely taking notes, but every single one of my friends from the different Houses has a Journal, and we're always using them during class," Harry said happily before taking a bite of his steak.

"You all managed to get something like this by all of the professors?" Sirius asked as he laughed, Remus being unable to say anything else as he was shocked by the idea. "I have to say, you're all as good as we Marauders at getting away with things."

"I'm pretty sure we're better than you all were when it comes to our Journals," Harry informed his godfather with a smug smile. "And Moony, you'll catch flies with your mouth open like that. Not even wolves like flies, I'm afraid."

"You're telling me that I had three years of students using those Journals during my class all year?" Remus finally asked in disbelief as he finally shook himself of his shock.

"Well, not all year," Harry admitted. "Very few people had Journals the first month, if they had them at all, but after that… basically, yeah."

"I think we had better eat before Moony here faints from amazement," Sirius told Harry in amusement, and they shared a smile as they began eating.

In Harry's mind, this was the perfect first day at his new home.

 


	2. Chapter Two

Harry woke up the first morning of summer break and smiled as he looked around his room again. It really was the perfect room for him.

Getting out of bed, Harry headed to the bathroom on the third floor and took a shower to wake up before going back to his room and getting dressed. Once he was ready to face the day, Harry pulled out his Journal and activated it, putting it into voice mode so that he didn't have to write anything.  
  
_Harry: Hey Trace, Gin._  
  
_Girls: Morning Harry._  
  
_Harry: Were you both kicking the others out so that only you two could talk to me this morning?_  
  
_Ginny: Maaayyyybbbbeeee…_  
  
_Tracey: Harry, did you see the Evening Prophet last night?_  
  
_Harry: Yeah, I did. Sirius and Remus showed me it. I gather you both have realized what it probably means as well._  
  
_Tracey: Well, Daddy told me what he, Daphne's father, and Sirius all think it means we'll have problems in the near future, and I have to admit that it's probably quite likely._  
  
_Ginny: Then she told me, and I also have to agree with them. With Pettigrew out now, we're going to have trouble in the future._  
  
_Harry: So, how long do you think we'll have before Voldemort has his body back?_  
  
_Ginny: This isn't something to joke about, Harry!_  
  
_Harry: Who said I was joking, Gin? Voldemort will get a body back eventually and we need to know when that is._  
  
_Tracey: Calm down you two. We all agree that Voldemort will be coming back eventually, but we don't need to discuss this now._  
  
_Harry: I'm going to go down and see if Sirius or Remus is up. I'll talk to you both later._  
  
Harry signed off, a bit annoyed that Ginny thought he was joking around. He knew he shouldn't really be all that annoyed, but it was hard not to be. Out of all his friends, only Tracey and Ginny knew the exact words of the prophecy; Daphne and Astoria knew that he had one about him and Voldemort, but not much more. That made this a lot harder on him as Ginny should know that he hated the thought of Voldemort coming back.  
  
In fact, Harry thought at he slipped his Journal into a pocket of his jeans and left his room, he and Ginny had talked about this sort of thing a lot. She knew that he was afraid of the idea that he would have to kill Voldemort, no matter how evil he was. Over the course of the last year, Ginny had spent hours trying to calm him down when it came to the prophecy, yet it was hard for him to believe that she truly understood what he was going through.  
  
When Harry got to the kitchen, he found that Remus was awake while Sirius was probably still snoring away in his room on the third floor.  
  
"Morning, Moony," Harry said as he walked over to a pitcher of orange juice and poured himself a glass before sitting down at the table.  
  
"Good morning, Harry," Remus replied as he looked up from the _Daily Prophet_ to smile at the teen, who was frowning slightly. "Is something wrong?"  
  
"Ginny was being a bit annoying, is all," Harry said, not really in the mood to explain anything else.  
  
"Ah," was all Remus said in response before going back to reading the paper, which had a bunch of articles about Sirius, Pettigrew, and the Potters splashed across the front page this morning.  
  
Sighing internally, Harry got up and began to make breakfast for himself and Remus. He and Kreacher had made a deal one day during the school year that he would make breakfast for whoever was in the kitchen when he got there, and Kreacher would make it for anyone who came later. Kreacher could make lunch, and Harry would help him make dinner.  
  
"Thank you, Harry," Remus said as he put the paper to the side and looked down at the plate of eggs, bacon, and toast in front of him.  
  
"You're welcome, Moony," Harry replied as he sat down with his own plate of food. "Anything of interest in the paper besides Wormtail?"  
  
"Not really," Remus sighed. It was still hard for him and Sirius to deal with the fact that the man who had once been their friend had actually betrayed them, Harry knew, so he said nothing.  
  
"Mornin'," Sirius said through a yawn as he walked into the kitchen a few minutes later, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "What, nothing for me?" he asked indignantly as he opened his eyes and saw the breakfast on the table.  
  
"Kreacher's already working on your breakfast," Harry informed his godfather while he gestured to the elf working at the stove with his head.  
  
"Oh… good," Sirius finally said as he slumped down into a chair, obviously still half asleep.  
  
Harry gave Sirius an amused look as he stood up and put his empty dishes in the sink. His godfather had basically fallen back to sleep at the table and he had only been there for a minute or so.  
  
"I'm going to see if anyone wants to come over and see the house today, is that okay?" Harry asked Remus and Sirius.  
  
"Go right ahead, Cub," Remus answered for the pair as Sirius blinked and looked at Harry with an air of someone who was very confused.  
  
"Thanks, Moony," he said with a laugh for his godfather before rushing out of the kitchen and up to the stairs into the living room.  
  
Once there, he pulled out his Journal again and saw that most of his friends were awake and talking in the colored Journal mode now.  
  
_Tracey: Ah, here he is._  
  
_Harry: Are you always waiting for me to get on these days?_  
  
_Everyone: Yes._  
  
_Harry: At least I know what you all think of me._  
  
_Ginny: What's your plan for the day?_  
  
_Harry: Well… I was going to ask if anyone wanted to come over and see my new house, but I don't think I want any of you over here now that I know what you all think about me._  
  
_Everyone: Harry!_  
  
_Harry: *Sighs* Fine… So, does anyone want to come over?_  
  
_Draco: *Remarks dryly* I believe the response from before should tell you that everyone who can wants to come over, but maybe that's just my take on it._  
  
_Harry: Oh, good, I'm not the only one to think that!_  
  
_Daphne: *Groans* He's being a smart arse again today._  
  
_Harry: I am not!_  
  
_Tracey and Ginny: Yes you are._  
  
_Harry: Darn…_  
  
_Theo: My father told me to get out of the house as much as I can this summer; I think he's sick of seeing me around now that I'm a "disappointment" to him. *Laughs darkly*_  
  
_Fred: Mum was going to say that we couldn't go to the house of Sirius Black, but Dad told her that he had met and talked to Sirius at the Ministry more than once and that he's not even close to a mass-murderer._  
  
_George: Basically, Mum said yes once she heard that we won't be killed the moment we step into the house._  
  
_Ginny: Not that it would have stopped me from going over anyway, but it's always better to have permission._  
  
_Susan: Auntie talked to Hannah and Justin's parents, so they're allowed to come as well because they trust her to be sure that he isn't a dark wizard or a murderer._  
  
_Terry: My parents didn't take that much convincing, though I might have to bring a few siblings over once in a while._  
  
_Harry: Hey, the more the merrier._  
  
_Padma: Parvati made it a lot harder to convince my parents, but I managed to talk to Mum without her there and it worked out in the end._  
  
_Harry: So, basically, all of you have convinced your parents to let you come over except for Draco?_  
  
_Draco: Hey! My mother convinced father to let me come over once a week so that I could be respectful to my cousin. Also, she's hoping that he'll tell me about her older sister, the one who got disowned._  
  
_Harry: Wow… Even Draco actually managed to get permission. I think I'm actually a bit scared right now._  
  
_Draco: Oh shut up!_  
  
_Everyone Else: *Laughs*_  
  
_Harry: So, all of you want to come over within the next hour or so? I'm not letting anyone go past the living room until you're all here, by the way._  
  
_Tracey: I'll see you then. Daddy told me that I had to go over today so that I could tell him what I thought of the attic… whatever that means._  
  
_Harry: Ask him if he was the main one to put the attic together._  
  
_Tracey: I'll be a minute, but sure._  
  
_Daphne: Our dad wants us to see the attic as well, but I think he's more interested in our reactions to your room. He said he helped plan the whole thing out._  
  
_Harry: Thank him for me, then._  
  
_Astoria: I just did. Daphne's up in her room, but I'm in the living room with our parents, who are reading. Oh, he says that you're quite welcome and that he's glad you love it so much._  
  
_Theo: Can you PLEASE tell us what's so special about your room?_  
  
_Harry: Nope._  
  
_Theo: You can be a bloody pain in the arse at times._  
  
_Harry: I can? Darn… I was trying for almost all the time. *Smirks*_  
  
_Tracey: Daddy says that he did the planning for the attic and had Sirius get most of the stuff in it from his family vault. He also did most of the charms to the room._  
  
_Harry: Tell him thanks, and I'm pretty sure everyone else will agree with me when I say that it's bloody brilliant!_  
  
_Tracey: I just did, and he just laughed before telling me to go get ready, so I'll probably be there in a few minutes._  
  
_Harry: I'm going to go let Moony and Padfoot know, then, so that they don't get shocked when all of you start appearing out of the Floo. Make sure you all bring your stuff to train with, including your wands!_

**…**

"This room is amazing!" Hermione finally said in awe as they all began to slowly walk around the attic. She and Neville had been told to come over to Harry's house a bit after the others, when they had all dragged Harry back onto his Journal so that he could give them the Floo address.  
  
"It really is," Susan agreed quietly as everyone else nodded.  
  
"We'll be able to use this place to train while we can use Tracey's house to fly and swim," Harry told his friends with a grin, slightly amused by their faces even though he was pretty sure his had been just as awed the night before.  
  
Before anyone else knew what was happening, Harry had changed into his wolf form and jumped at Tracey, who reacted on instinct and turned into her cat to slide under him. After that, it was chaos as everyone transformed and began wrestling all over the place.  
  
Looking around a while later, Harry saw that Hannah, Hermione, and Padma were all watching from the sidelines along with an amused Remus, who had come up with Sirius when they had heard the noise. All four of them were human. Otherwise, the birds of the group were all dive-bombing the others while the rest of the animals wrestled.  
  
Just in time, Harry spotted Ginny about to pounce on him in his moment of distraction and moved so that he could land on top of her in the end. She ended up on her back and Harry had used his paws to hold her arms down as they both panted. Reminded of another time they had done something similar to that, Harry jumped off of her and onto Blaise, but not before he had seen a light in her eyes that he didn't see very often.  
  
If Harry had looked over at the observers against the wall, he would have seen the four humans in the room exchanging knowing looks as Ginny got up and jumped on Daphne.

…

"This is my room," Harry said a few hours later after they had all exhausted themselves from wrestling as animals and eaten a lunch of sandwiches and soup in the kitchen as they stood outside his door.  
  
Slowly, he opened the door and walked over to sit on his bed, hugging his knees to his chest and watching his friends look around his room. No one noticed him for a minute or two as they stared around the walls, but then Ginny walked over to him and sat down next to him, looking around still. Tracey joined the pair and sat on Harry's other side a few minutes later.  
  
As the others noticed them, some sat down on his bed, Astoria stole his chair at his desk, and everyone else sat down on the floor.  
  
"This is amazing, Harry," Ginny said for the group.  
  
"I know," he agreed as he looked at the stag and doe again. The two of them were watching from beside his bed, so it drew the attention of everyone sitting on the bed, and they all gasped softly as they realized who the animals had to represent. "My parents," he admitted softly, confirming most thoughts and drawing the attention of the rest of the group.  
  
"Sirius thought to have those four put onto the wall as well?" Hannah asked, and Harry nodded.  
  
Only Ginny and Tracey noticed that he was now holding a chain in his hands, hiding the rings they both knew were hanging there.  
  
The door to the room opened and Remus and Sirius walked in, allowing Harry to put the chain back under his shirt. They both looked around the room, their eyes finally stopping on the stag, doe, wolf, and dog by Harry's bed.  
  
"You all like the room, then?" Sirius asked the room at large, earning positive responses from the group. "We thought you all would like it."  
  
"It seems the painting knows how all of you would play in your Animagus forms," Remus added on with a touch of amusement as they all watched Theo's fox form jump on Daphne's lioness form, something that Theo had been doing to Daphne earlier in the attic.  
  
"Yup," Astoria said with a laugh as she saw Blaise's bear jump at Theo's fox. "That's definitely Theo and Blaise when it comes to Daphne."  
  
"Shut up, Astoria," Daphne told her sister as she hit the younger girl's leg from her position next to the desk and on the floor, though everyone could see she was smiling.  
  
"Well, we'll leave you alone, but make sure you know that you can come over here any time you want," Sirius told the group.  
  
"Except in the middle of the night unless you're sleeping over," Harry added quickly as he saw the grins on the twins' faces.  
  
" _Harry_ ," they whined in disappointment.  
  
"You are not pranking in the middle of the night," Harry stated firmly. " _Unless it's Padfoot,_ " Harry added in Parseltongue to Ginny, who laughed before whispering the message to Fred, who smiled and told George. Both of them looked at Harry, who nodded in confirmation, and they both looked at Sirius before sharing grins.  
  
"What did you say, Harry?" Sirius demanded as he saw their looks, obviously worried. "What did you have Ginny tell them?"  
  
"Nothing, nothing at all, Padfoot," Harry said innocently as the twins and Ginny broke out laughing.  
  
"Just let it go, Padfoot," Remus told his friend as he pushed him out of the room, having a good idea what Harry had hissed.  
  
"What did he say?" most of the group demanded of Ginny once the door was closed and they all heard Sirius and Remus were out of hearing distance.  
  
"That they could come here in the middle of the night to prank Padfoot," she said, and everyone broke out into laughter.

…

That night, Harry watched the snakes moving on his ceiling as he thought about how the twins had asked him to help them plan pranks on Sirius, which he had happily agreed to. Of course, when he told the group that Sirius and Remus had told him that they didn't mind if he used magic during the summer because they knew he would only use it for training, household spells, or pranking, they all started to talk about how training with magic would be excellent, and the pranksters of the group began talking about pranks for the Marauders.  
  
It had been awesome to find out from Sirius that magic could be done in magical homes because there were adult witches and wizards there, so the Ministry couldn't tell if it had been an adult or a child doing the magic. When he had asked why Samuel hadn't let them use magic the summer before, Sirius informed him that Samuel had wanted them to learn the non-magical fighting techniques before learning more spells.  
  
Remus had promised Harry that he would teach him and his friends spells that summer as long as they kept up with their swords, daggers, and hand-to-hand training, which Harry knew they would. Of course, everyone had to have their homework done within the first two weeks of summer or they wouldn't be allowed to go over to Harry's house until it was done, so they had all agreed to spend the next day at their own homes doing homework with the Journals on to use for help from others.  
  
Harry fell asleep that night with a smile on his face, happy to be where he was for once.

 …

A few hundred miles away, a rat missing a finger was riding in the back of a truck. The rat, who was Peter Pettigrew, had heard over the years that there were rumors of the Dark Lord hiding in Albania, so he was headed in that direction. He now knew that his only hope was to find his master and help him in any way he could. Peter Pettigrew had nothing else but his master now.

…

In a forest in Albania, a dark spirit was possessing a snake, trying its hardest not to die as it hoped beyond hope that one of its followers would come to help it return to its former glory using a ritual it knew of. At the very least, Lord Voldemort knew that he couldn't die because of his Horcruxes, though he had no idea that three had already been destroyed.

…

At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster, used his Pensieve to look through memories of one Tom Marvolo Riddle-who would later become Lord Voldemort-that he had collected over the years. He now knew, after seeing that little black diary Harry Potter had handed to him for a few hours a year before, that Voldemort had Horcruxes, and now he was trying to figure out all he could about them so that he could find them.

…

In a manor, hundreds of miles away from Hogwarts, a blond man was sitting in his study with a glass of liquor in his hand. He was thinking about the idea of having some fun after the Quidditch World Cup that summer. To him, it was an idea that held merit as it would be a wonderful way to bring some of the old friends back together and remind them of their ideals.  
  
He finally decided to owl a few friends on the morrow.

…

Samuel Davis and Daniel Greengrass were sitting together in Daniel's study at the Greengrass residence, their own Pensieve on the desk in front of them. A row of glass vials filled with a silvery substance stood next to it. They had looked through all of the memories of Tom Riddle they had managed to collect, but they couldn't figure out what another Horcrux could be besides Hufflepuff's little golden cup, let alone where another one could be hidden.  
  
Their thought would be to talk to Harry, but they both realized that he probably would know less than they did. In fact, until Lord Voldemort returned, they knew Harry wouldn't understand him very well. Unfortunately, they knew that Harry would understand Tom Riddle much better than anyone else once he had seen the memories they had of him. Even worse was that he would probably understand Lord Voldemort very well once he had returned.  
  
Finally, the two men came to an agreement that Harry had to see the memories they had of Tom Riddle. They knew that Harry would probably be able to tell them things about Tom Riddle that they would never figure out themselves, especially when they told him of his history to go along with the memories.  
  
Samuel told Daniel that he would talk to Sirius later that week so that he could meet with Harry to show him the memories.

…

In a house that was obviously held up by magic just outside of Ottery St. Catchpole known as the Burrow, one of the young occupants was still wide awake. Ron Weasley was in his very orange room at the top of the Weasley home, sitting up in his bed and deep in thought. The reason for his thoughts was the sleeping, raven haired Slytherin, Harry Potter.  
  
Ron had grown up with stories of Harry Potter being told all the time. Everyone had expected him to be a Gryffindor, so to watch him be Sorted into Slytherin had been like a punch in the gut for Ron. Even worse was that he had been making friends with everyone in their year, then the twins, and eventually he had begun making friends with the younger years, including his sister Ginny.  
  
Then, Harry had gone and saved Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets at the end of her first year, and he had found out that he had not been opening the Chamber but his own sister had been. Of course, Ron had watched silently from his dorm window as Harry and Ginny spent every single day of the last two weeks of school outside on the grounds under a tree and talked for hours on end. He could tell as each day passed that Harry was helping Ginny get over the fact that she had been possessed by the little black diary she had been using all year, which had once been Lord Voldemort's.  
  
After that day, Ron had begun realizing that his view of the Slytherin wasn't really an accurate one, so he had been watching. Harry Potter was a Slytherin for sure as he was able to lie to the twins in the face without them knowing it, he was causing mischief a lot, he was cunning, and so many other things that made a Slytherin a Slytherin, yet Harry Potter was not a normal Slytherin.  
  
Thinking about it, Ron understood what the twins and Ginny said when they had told their mother that the Sorting Hat had said Harry could have been in any of the Houses. Harry Potter had the loyalty of a Hufflepuff when it came to his friends, the brains of a Ravenclaw when it came to classes, and the heart of a Gryffindor when it came to helping his friends. Most people wouldn't go into a Chamber with a basilisk just to save a friend when they knew the basilisk was there, even if they knew that basically no one alive could get into there besides them.  
  
The thing was, it was obvious to Ron that Harry was a Slytherin before anything else. He used his cunning to earn himself more friends without getting people mad at him, and he used the fact that he knew a lot to keep himself alive, knowing that studying and learning more would keep him alive. On top of all of that, he thought and planned ahead before jumping into things, which was what most Gryffindors would do without the plan.  
  
Sighing, Ron moved himself so that he was in a position to sleep with his eyes closed as he realized that he had been greatly mistaken about the green-eyed, black haired Slytherin. He could only hope that Harry Potter and his friends would accept him and his friends into their group of friends, even if he knew deep down inside that he wouldn't be as close to Harry as his siblings were, for he didn't really mind, just wanting to be his friend.


	3. Chapter Three

Harry woke up a week into the summer holidays and quickly grabbed his glasses from his bedside table, cleaning them on his shirt before putting them on. He caught sight of Hedwig sleeping with her head under a wing on the new stand that Sirius had bought for her just a couple days before. Another glance told Harry that Ankh was wrapped around the pole beside Hedwig's talons and sleeping peacefully, which drew a smile from him.

Standing up and stretching, Harry got dressed in a black T-shirt and sweatpants quickly and quietly before strapping the Dagger to his left arm and his other dagger to his left thigh. A shrunken Gryffindor's Sword went into his left pocket while a shrunken _Nimbus 2000_ joined it, his emerald green Journal in the other pocket with his Invisibility Cloak. Harry's holly and phoenix feather wand was in its holster on the inside of his left forearm. Hanging from Harry's dragonhide belt was a goblin-made sword with an emerald in the hilt, a snake carved out of the hilt, and the other three Hogwarts animals carved into the blade. Four throwing knives in their special sheath were also on his belt.  
  
Opening the door to his room slowly, Harry slipped out and went down the stairs soundlessly, his senses on high alert. Reaching the second floor, he moved as quickly as he could while still being silent. Luckily, Harry seemed to be the first one awake again and was able to make it into the kitchen without meeting anyone.  
  
When he entered the room, Harry breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw only Remus was awake. Remus gave Harry a smile, but kept silent, knowing why the teenager was so uptight and on high alert — a bunch of his friends had slept over again.  
  
Just as Harry sat down at the table with a view of both the Floo and the doorway, Ginny walked into the kitchen and stopped suddenly when she saw Harry sitting there. Harry grinned at her and she relaxed enough to give him a half smile and go grab some of the food Harry had left out.  
  
As Ginny walked, Harry looked her over. She too was wearing black sweatpants and a dark T-shirt. On her right arm was her dagger, and Harry could see her wand holster on her left arm. Hanging from her side was her own sword, though it was slightly different from Harry's. A ruby in the hilt with a roaring lion carved underneath while a snake joined the eagle and the badger on the blade.  
  
Ginny sat down next to Harry and asked the same question she had asked every morning she and the twins had managed to persuade their mother to let them visit, "Allies?"  
  
"Of course," he replied with a quick smile before turning back to his food so that they could be finished eating quickly, wanting to be done before the others awoke.  
  
Just as the pair finished, the Floo activated and Tracey stepped out of it. She was also wearing the dark clothes, a sword to match Harry's, her dagger, and a sheathed wand. One look at the empty plates in front of Harry and Ginny and she raised an eyebrow with a smile. They both just smirked slightly and shook their heads, Remus watching on as the trio communicated silently.  
  
"Again?" Tracey finally asked, and the two at the table nodded as they stood up.  
  
Harry pulled out his Invisibility Cloak and held it up for the two girls to get under, and they all covered themselves completely, Remus giving them a thumbs-up to let them know that they weren't visible, and Harry knew that Remus would be on their side for something like this.  
  
The three slowly left the kitchen and went up to Harry's room, walking silently because they had only socks on their feet, no shoes. Once in his room, Harry quickly slipped out from under the Cloak and went to grab Ankh and his shoulder holder for the snake. Behind him, Ginny was rushing to his wardrobe and Tracey to his bedside table.  
  
Five days ago, when Sirius had first come up with the idea, Ginny, Tracey, and Harry had agreed to always work together, never against one another. It meant that they could use Harry's room as a base for their supplies and not be afraid of their hiding places being found. The only way Harry would agree to idea was if no one could get into his room except him unless they were with him, and Remus had agreed by placing a charm on his doorway for him. The charm didn't even allowing Remus or Sirius into there without Harry, and only Harry knew the password needed to remove the charm.  
  
Ankh woke up quickly and slipped up Harry's arm into the holder that had been a gift from Samuel for Christmas. Once Harry turned around, he smiled as he saw Ginny had the six pouches hidden in a false bottom of his wardrobe; she was slipping two of them onto her belt before passing him a couple and he mimicked her. Tracey then pulled out three pieces of parchment and slipped one into one of the pouches Ginny passed her, giving Harry and Ginny another parchment that they too secreted away. Harry reached under his mattress and pulled out three black dragonhide cloaks and passed one to each of them.  
  
Ready, they pulled the Invisibility Cloak over themselves and slipped out of the room and over to the stairs leading to the attic. Ginny smiled and pulled out a translucent piece of fishing line, which Harry had asked Remus to buy for him, while Tracey grabbed a couple vials of potion from her pouch.  
  
As his two friends worked quickly, Harry slipped out from under the Cloak and pulled out a vial of powder. He walked quietly up the stairs and pulled out a small metal tube along with more fishing line. Working quickly, he put together the second part of their trap, which would hopefully go as unnoticed at the first.  
  
When he was done setting it up, Harry tapped the line with his wand before rubbing a rag over it, watching as the line disappeared. He then did the same thing with the girls' line before all three of them slipped up into the attic and Harry sent a final spell down the staircase, hitting both pieces of line.  
  
" _Ankh_ ," Harry hissed almost silently, only audible to a Parselmouth or a snake nearby. " _Can you smell anything on the stairs?_ " he asked once the corn snake had poked his head out of the little case on his shoulder.  
  
" _No_ ," Ankh hissed after tasting the air, which made Harry smile.  
  
" _All clear, Gin_ ," he hissed, and the two girls appeared just behind him, Ginny holding out his Cloak to him.  
  
As he put the cloak back into his pocket, Tracey silenced the entire room. They had learned the hard way that just silencing the door didn't work when the twins had made too much noise in the attic and had informed all of the others that they were up there and up to something.  
  
"This should be interesting," Ginny mused quietly, none of them trusting the charms completely.  
  
"It should," Harry agreed with a nod before pulling out the piece of parchment Tracey had found in the hiding place built into his bedside table. " _Black Manor is Complete_ ," he said as he tapped the parchment with his wand.  
  
They all watched as ink began to cover the parchment, reminding them all of them Marauder's Map. Within seconds, they had a perfect map of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place including dots to represent the people in the house.  
  
Sirius and Remus had made the map during the school year and made a bunch of copies of it. Neither man had noticed when Harry had stolen three of them a couple days before after Sirius had shown him the maps the second full day Harry had been there.  
  
"Hermione is awake, as are the twins," Tracey said quietly after activating her own map.  
  
"Looks like Daphne and Astoria decided to come over," Ginny added.  
  
"Theo and Blaise are awake and probably planning away," Harry informed them. "Oh, and it looks like Draco joined them just now."  
  
"Hannah and Susan just arrived and are talking with Hermione and Padma," Ginny stated as they watched their dots go up to the Gryffindor bedroom Hermione had spent the night in.  
  
"Oh great, the twins and the Greengrass sisters are teaming up," Tracey groaned. "Those four are going to be a nightmare today."  
  
"At least we've got the upper hand today," Harry reminded them as he looked up from the map and grinned at his friends. "Plus, no one knows you're here, Trace, except for Moony, and he and Padfoot vowed not to interfere in this, so he won't tell."  
  
"True," she agreed with a smile before saying " _Mischief Managed_ ," and putting her parchment back into a pouch, Ginny following along while Harry kept his out.  
  
Harry slipped into a corner of the room while Tracey and Ginny positioned themselves around the door, hidden. He had to smile as he looked around the attic and saw that Sirius had changed it all over again. This time it looked like a plateau with rocks all over the place, making the perfect cover for an ambush. It would give them quite a bit more edge than, say, a flat ground as Sirius had done the first time.  
  
Time passed slowly as Harry watched his friends interact on the Map, most likely fighting, but finally, _finally_ , George led Fred, Astoria, and Daphne towards the staircase on the third floor.  
  
" _Tell Ginny that the twins and the Greengrasses are coming, please, Ankh_ ," Harry requested of his friend, crouching down so that the snake could slither down his arm and towards Ginny. They had used Ankh as communication before, and it was actually the quickest, quietest, and most effective type of communication that they had that wouldn't give them away.  
  
Harry wiped the Map and put it away, watching as Ginny nodded to Ankh and sent a couple of red sparks at Tracey, letting her know that someone was coming. Ankh slipped back into his home on Harry's shoulder just moments before the door opened.  
  
He had to hold in a happy sound as he watched four of the hardest people to trick with a trap walk into the room as if nothing was wrong. Harry knew that later on he could brag to Tracey and Ginny, who had said that his idea would never work on anyone, let alone the twins.  
  
"Do you think they're in here, or are they in his room?" Fred whispered to the other three as they looked around the room.  
  
"Oh, they're here," Daphne stated. "If I know Harry, and I do, he'd be trying to pull some sort of ambush."  
  
"So would Ginny," George admitted.  
  
Harry smirked as he realized they thought it was only he and Ginny in the room. They still didn't know Tracey was over, which meant they weren't as outnumbered as the four of them thought.  
  
" _Stupefy_ ," Harry whispered at almost the exact same time Ginny and Tracey whispered the spell. Three red lights shot at the four, and they barely ducked in time.  
  
"Bloody hell, someone else is with them!" Fred swore, ducking to the left and barely dodging Ginny's second stunner.  
  
"Thanks for stating the obvious!" Daphne growled, ducking under her third stunner from Tracey.  
  
Harry aimed another stunner at George with his left hand while his right hand threw a dulled throwing knife at Astoria, hitting her in the arm and lodging into it just enough that it didn't fall off of her.  
  
"Argh!" she cried as she dropped her wand while falling to the ground so that she had enough time to pull the knife out of her arm. Realizing her mistake, she picked up her wand just in time to put up a shield before Harry's Stunner hit her.  
  
"You okay?" Daphne called to her sister.  
  
"Harry got me with a knife," she called back. "One of the lucky shots that doesn't just leave a small cut but lodges into it." As she spoke, she dodged Stunners and used her left hand to put a piece of cloth onto the wound, holding it in place.  
  
Harry didn't stop aiming Stunners at the younger girl as he threw another throwing knife at George moments after the first appeared back in its sheath. The one aimed at George skimmed his side and left a small cut before hitting the wall behind them and falling to the ground.  
  
Tracey shattered Daphne's shield with a loud CRACK, and Harry used the moment to hit their fellow Slytherin with a Stunner, knowing she wouldn't be expecting it from his position. Daphne fell and none of her allies were close enough to _Rennervate_ her.  
  
Harry then concentrated on Astoria as he moved between rocks, throwing knives and _Stupefies_ at her over and over, finally Stunning her. When he looked up, Harry saw with a smile that the trap he and the girls had set up had finally gone into effect, and oh Merlin did it have an effect!  
  
Fred and George suddenly couldn't speak because their mouths wouldn't open, and when they put their hands to their mouths, they got stuck there. Then, the powder came into effect and their wands fell to the ground, their suddenly sweaty hands unable to hold them any longer. Finally, the final effect of the powder and potion mixing together came into action and neither boy could move anymore as their feet were stuck to the ground.  
  
Without the ability to move or speak and their wands on the floor, the twins only took a few moments for the trio to stun. Once all four were stunned, the three teens lifted them into the air and deposited them into a dark corner of the room, tying each of them up alone and then to each other before putting a silencing charm over all of them. Harry then turned to the room while Tracey and Ginny took care of finding all of their weapons and supplies, knowing the twins would have a bunch of them.  
  
Harry used his wand to clean up all signs of a fight in the attic so that the next group to come up wouldn't realize that anything had happened there. The silencing charms had been a useful idea as it kept the others away from the fight.  
  
"Bloody hell," Ginny muttered as she stared in awe at all the supplies the three of them had. Harry joined her as he finished and whistled.  
  
The twins had enough supplies to fill up another twelve of the pouches the three of them were wearing, and those were expanded to hold as much as a normal school bag. It turned out that Daphne and Astoria had both gotten a hold of throwing knives, but the barrage of spells from the three of them had stopped them from being able to use them. Then, of course, were their daggers, swords, and wands.  
  
"Take the supplies and knives," Harry decided as he pulled a dozen pouches out of one of his own, allowing Tracey and Ginny to fill them up as he collected the swords and wands.  
  
The swords went into a special rack set up along a wall of the room. When one put a wand to a specific sword, only that specific wand could release the sword. Another, smaller, rack did the same thing with the wands, which was where the four wands were placed. A quick tap of the rune under each sword and wand made it so that only he could see them there.  
  
"They outdid themselves when they built this," Harry said in awe as he looked over the two racks.  
  
"They did," Tracey agreed as she and Ginny walked over to him, handing him four more pouches of supplies to slip onto the back of his belt. "But for now, we've got another ambush to set up."  
  
This time, Ginny used the Map and had Ankh with her while Harry and Tracey waited closer to the door. It took another long wait, but eventually Draco, Blaise, and Theo walked cautiously into the room, and another fight ensued.  
  
During this fight, all three of them used throwing knives, though only Harry more than just once or twice per person. Draco managed to stun Tracey, but Harry brought her back around and she rejoined the fight until their trap took effect on all three of the boys and they were able to Stun them quickly. Working quickly, they added more supplies to their pouches, filling them up completely, and Tracey locked up their swords and wands, making it so that each group had to get a different wand to get theirs back.  
  
Finally, a loud bell was heard throughout the entire house, and they knew it was time for a two hour lunch. Freeing their friends, Harry, Tracey, and Ginny all made their way downstairs, leaving the swords and wands upstairs. Of course, they all put a spell on themselves before going down the stairs so that the fishing line wouldn't set off their own trap, so they knew they would get an amusing bit of entertainment during lunch.  
  
In the kitchen, all three weren't that surprised to see Neville, Terry, Hermione, Padma, Susan, Hannah, and Luna all eating sandwiches with Sirius and Remus. They were all surprised to see the others following the trio into the kitchen, though.  
  
"Let me guess, all of you were in the attic," Remus said in amusement as Harry and the two girls got some pumpkin juice and their own sandwiches.  
  
"Of course," Harry replied with a smirk in the direction of the twins, Daphne, Astoria, Draco, Theo, and Blaise.  
  
"Which group won up there?" Sirius asked curiously, obviously having not caught the smirk.  
  
"We did," Ginny told him as she gestured to Harry and Tracey.  
  
"By the way, when did Tracey get here?" Hermione asked before any of the others from the attic could say anything.  
  
"Just as these two finished eating but before anyone else was awake besides Remus," she told the curious Gryffindor with a small smile.  
  
"How badly did they beat you this time?" Neville asked around a mouthful of sandwich.  
  
"Badly," all three chorused as the others groaned.  
  
"How the bloody hell did you do that to us?" the twins demanded in unison.  
  
"Do what?" Daphne asked curiously. Astoria was also looking on in interest. The two of them had been the only two to be stunned before the trap had gone into effect, so they didn't know about it.  
  
"We couldn't speak, then our wands fell out of suddenly sweaty hands, and finally we couldn't move our feet," Blaise sighed as he closed his eyes.  
  
"It happened to you, too?" Fred asked the three boys, and all three nodded. "Then how in the world did you three make that happen?" he demanded of the smirking trio, who were all looking at the clock on the wall.  
  
Before anyone could say anything else, all of people from the attic minus the trio suddenly couldn't speak as their lips were sealed together. Then their goblets and sandwiches fell out of their hands. Finally, their feet and buttocks were stuck to the chair.  
  
Everyone was silent for a moment before they burst into laughter, which got even louder as the group glared at them all silently.  
  
"Is that what happened upstairs?" Hermione got out as she was the first one to calm down, and the trio nodded at her in confirmation, laughing the hardest of the group.  
  
"That is bloody brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed through his laughter as he got up and slapped his godson on the back.  
  
"How does it work?" Terry asked, which made the others stop laughing except for the trio as they were all hoping they would find out.  
  
"Nuh-uh, no way are we telling you how we made this happen," Ginny gasped out.  
  
"We want to keep using this for as long as we can," Harry agreed.  
  
"I thought the rules said that you can't do anything to us after the bell rings!" Fred exclaimed as the first part of the trap finally wore off, allowing the group to speak.  
  
"We didn't do anything to you after the bell rang," Tracey informed them, beginning the twin speak that she and Harry used.  
  
"But that doesn't mean an active trap didn't affect you," Harry finished before all three burst back into laughter, though Ginny calmed down enough to finish the statement.  
  
"And the rules stated that any active traps could be used as long as they were activated before the bell," she reminded them before laughter took over her again.  
  
"They got you all good," Remus told the group as everyone turned to him to confirm the rule; he had been voted the person to resolve any problems with rules.  
  
"Wait!" Neville exclaimed as he realized something.  
  
"What?" Hannah asked as everyone turned to face him, including the three gasping friends.  
  
"You do realize this means that the twins actually fell for a trap, right?" he told the group, making everyone look between the twins and the trio in shock. The twins had wide eyes and open mouths as they stared at their younger sister, Harry, and Tracey in shock, though their eyes also showed respect and awe.  
  
"We're dead," Astoria said for the entire group as they realized it meant those three would probably be able to get anyone into a trap now.

…

"I can't believe that worked," Ginny told Harry and Tracey as the three walked out of Tracey's house to go flying that afternoon.  
  
It was how everything worked. The mornings were spent at Harry's house either playing their war game or training because they both helped the group, and the afternoons were spent at other houses flying, playing Quidditch, swimming, or playing other games. In the evenings, everyone tried to persuade parents to let them spend the night at other houses, Harry's house being the most common now, followed by Tracey's.  
  
Harry spent many evenings making potions for traps and pranks by asking Remus to buy supplies, which he did willingly as he and Sirius knew that Harry understood the effects of different ingredients when mixed with other ones better than most of his friends. He had been the one to create both the potion and the powder, which were made to react with one another as well as work alone.  
  
"You mean my trap idea?" Harry asked, pretending to look offended. "I _told_ you it would work just fine. The different parts were literally made to react to each other, and you know I test those sorts of things."  
  
"We know you do, Harry," Tracey said softly, trying to keep him calm. "It just seemed so… so…"  
  
"Unbelievable?" Ginny suggested in a sweet voice with a smile on her face.  
  
"Actually, yes," Tracey agreed. "The idea just didn't really seem possible at the time, but now we know to trust your potion abilities, right Ginny?"  
  
"You should have trusted them before," he told the girls as Ginny nodded her agreement. "All of you know that only the twins, Hermione, Draco, and Theo are as good as I am at Potions, and I understand how the ingredients react better than any of them do, which makes homework pretty easy for me because I can explain why a potion works."  
  
"We know, Harry, and we should have trusted you more," Ginny said as she put a hand on his arm lightly, stopping him with her touch. "Next time, we won't doubt you, your potion abilities, your inventions, the spell ideas you have, or anything else of that nature when it comes to the traps."  
  
Harry could tell by the look in her eyes that she meant what she was saying, so he nodded before heading off in the direction of the others, leaving the two girls behind him, though he could still hear them as they talked to each other as they followed him.  
  
"How did you do that?" Tracey asked Ginny softly.  
  
"Let him see that I wasn't lying by the look in my eyes," Ginny replied almost as softly.  
  
"So basically you made sure he knew that you weren't trying to lie?" Tracey asked just to be sure, and Harry could almost hear Ginny nodding. "I'll have to remember that next time he's being a pain just because he doesn't want to believe me." Ginny laughed at that.  
  
"You do know that he likes you, right?" Tracey asked Ginny suddenly after a minute or two of silence.  
  
"What?" Ginny asked sharply, probably as unable to believe her ears as Harry was. He hadn't known that Tracey had realized it.  
  
"He's liked you for a while now, really," Tracey admitted. "Like most things, he keeps it well hidden behind that wall of his, which only got harder to get past as we both got better at Occlumency, though I got the skill faster than he did, but we all know that you and I are the only two who can truly see past that wall."  
  
"True," Ginny agreed, obviously fighting to keep her voice even. In Harry's mind, he was remembering Christmas, and he was willing to bet a couple of Galleons that Ginny was as well.  
  
"Hidden deep behind that wall, he's hiding the fact that he fancies you, and even I can barely see it most of the time," Tracey told Ginny. "And I'm betting you've seen the signs as well, haven't you?"  
  
"Yeah, I have," Ginny said softly. "For a while now, really."  
  
"I just thought that you should know," Tracey said just before they reached the others. "And remember, he might take a while, but he'll make sure that he tries with you. He's probably just thinking about the fact that you're only twelve going on thirteen while he's not even fourteen yet."  
  
"Yeah…" Ginny muttered quietly, and that was the last thing Harry heard before he took off into the air.  
  
He knew as well as Ginny did that their age was one of the main reasons they weren't doing anything yet, but he had promised her to wait a year and then look at it all again. Harry was going to keep that promise.


	4. Chapter Four

The next few weeks of summer went by as training, the war game, Quidditch, flying, swimming, sleepovers, homework, and everything else took over Harry's life. He had spent a week at Tracey's house, so they had taken their training to the outside of her home, practicing with swords, daggers, throwing knives, wands, and even some hand-to-hand during that week.

Ginny and the twins had managed to get Harry over to the Burrow for a day, and he had told them quite truthfully that he thought it was one of the best houses he had ever been in. Just like Tracey's house and his own, the Burrow had a lived-in feel about it, and it was obviously full of a family who knew how to love and care for one another. They had spent the day just hanging out and showing their mother that Harry was just another teenage boy.  
  
Otherwise, nothing had really changed from the first week except that they were spending more days training and fewer days playing their war game all around Grimmauld Place.  
  
Daniel and Sam had shown Harry, Tracey, Daphne, and Astoria the memories of Tom Riddle that they had along with telling them his history, and Harry had given them some more than likely insights to Tom Riddle. He had told them that one thing he thought was that Hogwarts would probably hold a Horcrux, seeing as Tom Riddle had probably seen Hogwarts as his first ever home, just as Harry did.  
  
Another thing was the idea that Gringotts may have a Horcrux, seeing as he would be jealous of anyone with a key, using that as proof that one might belong to the wizarding world. He himself had once felt like that when all of his classmates had pocket money while he didn't, and it was somewhat similar.  
  
Both ideas had been taken very seriously, and they were using them as ideas. All four kids — and Ginny, when Harry filled her in — were told to keep an eye out for something that might belong to Rowena Ravenclaw or the little gold Hufflepuff cup at Hogwarts, though they weren't really expected to find it.  
  
On one of the few days no one had come over, Harry had gone into the study and made a list of the people he considered family, and the list included all of the people with colored Journals, Tracey's parents, Daphne's parents, Remus, and Maya as well. Sirius had then put all of them onto their shared family tree, connecting some of the people to his dot as well as Harry's to show that they shared some of their family, though a single line connected the two of them as family as well.  
  
Finally, it was July 31st, Harry's birthday, and Harry had spent the night over at Tracey's along with Sirius and Remus. All three Davises had insisted upon it, and Harry had been so excited that Sirius and Remus had to agree.

…

"Hey, Trace," Harry said as Tracey tried to sneak into his room unsuccessfully.  
  
"Those war games really have helped our senses, haven't they?" she sighed as she sat down next to him on his bed, both of them fully dressed.  
  
"Among other things, yes," he laughed. "I mean, neither of us used to wake up at five in the morning without trouble before now."  
  
"True, but that will mean that waking up for classes will be easier," she reminded him as she slapped his shoulder lightly.  
  
"Yeah, I know." They both fell silent for a bit before Harry spoke again. "So, wanna go outside and spar a bit with our swords?"  
  
"Sure," Tracey agreed as she moved quickly to find her sword in her room. Harry grabbed his own and they met in the hallway before heading outside.  
  
It was a very common occurrence these days to have the two of them sparring outside in some way at five-thirty in the morning whenever Harry slept over at the Davis home. As long as they remembered to put silencing charms on their swords and the surrounding area, no one really minded.

…

A couple of hours later, Harry faked an overhead blow and a right side attack before hitting Tracey on her right leg with a dulled sword. Quickly, as the blade went down to block a blow that had already hit, Harry caught her sword with his own and sent it flying through the air to land a few meters away from them.  
  
Both of them sank to their knees, panting, after that. Harry sheathed his blade and wiped his forehead off with his sweat-covered shirt. He knew that they would both have more bruises to add to their collection, but it was such a normal thing that all of the teens knew how to make bruise paste now. Once they went inside, both would put it on their forming bruises and let it set for about ten minutes before washing it off in a shower.  
  
"That was a good training session," Harry gasped out as they both fought to get their breath back.  
  
"Yeah," Tracey agreed breathlessly, "but do you always have to kick my butt so well?" Tracey paused and then cut Harry off just as he opened his mouth to reply. "You know what, don't answer that because I know the answer and I don't want to hear it right now when my body is covered in bruises and I have aching muscles."  
  
Harry laughed as he had almost regained his breath and could smile at her a bit. She returned it as well as she could in her exhaustion. Neither of them would be good company until they found a shower, and ate and drank something.  
  
Finally, Harry stood up, got Tracey's sword, and helped her up before she sheathed it. Then the two of them headed into the kitchen to grab a couple of cold bottles of water each. They took the water to their rooms with them as they got a change of clothes and put their weapons away.  
  
Once Harry got into the bathroom with his water-one bottle already drained dry and the other a quarter of the way empty-his change of clothes, and his bruise paste, he undressed and applied the bruise paste to all of the forming bruises he could see in the body-length mirror. That finished, he just looked at himself in the mirror.  
  
Over the past year or so of training, he and all of his friends had gained a lot of muscle and were keeping off all of the fat. They were all thin but quite strong. Most people in Hogwarts weren't able to run as long as they could because all of them had been working on their stamina every day for the entire summer as well as most days during school. Plus, most of their classmates didn't fight with swords, daggers, knives, wands, or hand-to-hand.  
  
Finally, the paste had settled in long enough for Harry to start up the shower, and he let it warm up before stepping in and sighing in relief as the hot water ran over his back. He closed his eyes and let his chin fall to his chest. The paste was washed off as he cleaned himself, the water moving it down the drain, leaving no trace of the paste.  
  
With a giant effort, Harry stepped out of the shower and began drying and dressing, stopping in his room to throw the sweaty clothes into the hamper and pick up his daggers and wand. Ankh took his normal place on Harry's shoulder, and Harry finally headed back into the kitchen, tossing the two empty water bottles into a container that Sam would take to the recycling depot once a week or two.  
  
"Another sword session?" Samuel asked Harry in amusement as he flung himself into a chair at the table and leaned his head back against the chair.  
  
"Of course," he replied with a sigh just before both Remus and Tracey walked into the kitchen, Tracey's hair just as damp as Harry's.  
  
"I see these two have been busy this morning," Remus commented dryly as he sat down and watched the two teens close their eyes to relax.  
  
"Be quiet, Moony," Harry groaned for both of them. "We were up at five in the morning and needed something to do."  
  
"Again?" Daniella commented as she walked into the kitchen and began cooking alongside the house-elves, who had already been busy at work.  
  
"Yes, again," Harry groaned.  
  
"Oh, Happy Birthday, Harry," Remus commented when he knew Harry would stop groaning because he had opened his eyes again.  
  
"Thanks," he said as the others added their wishes, Tracey among them as neither had said anything about it earlier.  
  
Both he and Tracey suddenly jumped as their pockets heated up. The adults at the table saw where their hands were going and just went back to what they were doing; Remus and Samuel reading the paper while Daniella made food for the starving kids.  
  
_Ginny: Happy Birthday, Harry, and Happy Early Birthday, Trace.  
  
Both: Thanks.  
  
Daphne: Yeah, Happy Birthday, Harry.  
  
Others: Happy Birthday, Harry!  
  
Harry: Thanks.  
  
Blaise: Let me guess, you both were up early and decided to spar with swords again.  
  
Tracey: Harry, have we gotten that predictable?  
  
Harry: I believe we have, Trace. I think we'll have to confuse everyone soon.  
  
Tracey: That sounds like an excellent idea!  
  
Draco: *Groans* Did you have to give them an idea?  
  
Astoria: Why are you even bothering to ask, Draco? Of course Blaise had to give them an idea!  
  
Blaise: *Groans* Why is it always me being picked on?  
  
Theo: Because I make sure I keep my mouth closed when something like that is offered to me, knowing that I'll be told off if I don't.  
  
Blaise: Theo! Arghhh… *Groans*  
  
Ginny: ANYWAY! Tracey's house after breakfast, right?  
  
Tracey: Yup. We'll swim, fly, maybe play Quidditch, and we'll just hang out today. Absolutely no training at all; the adults promised us a day off today and tomorrow to just have fun.  
  
Harry: Then why did we use the swords again…?  
  
Tracey: Because we were bored, needed something to do, and had way too much energy?  
  
Harry: Ah, right, that explains it perfectly.  
  
Hermione: No it doesn't, and Happy Birthday, Harry.  
  
Harry: Yes it does, Hermione, and thanks.  
  
Daphne: Don't argue with Harry and Tracey about something like this, Hermione. You know as well as the rest of us that the two of them — and Ginny at times — do things that make perfect sense to them but not to anyone else. They're like the twins in that.  
  
Hermione: True… *Sighs*  
  
Tracey: Well, Harry is already eating the sticky buns that Mum made, so I'll say good-bye for both of us. See you all in an hour or two!_

…

"Hey, Maya!" Astoria called with a pleased look on her face when she spotted the older Slytherin entering the room, and Harry waved at the younger Slytherin as she waved to both of them.  
  
They were all in the indoor pool on the third floor, having agreed that it was easier to wait inside than outside for everyone else, but they wanted to be able to do something for a while. That evening, when the sun had lost some of its strength, the group would go swim in the pond outside.  
  
Maya led two younger kids into the room, all of them dressed in their bathing costumes. Harry quickly swam over to the edge where Maya was waiting to introduce the boy and girl who had followed her in. The boy shared Maya's tanned skin, black hair, and light green eyes, but the girl had pale skin, light-brown hair, and brown eyes.  
  
"This is my younger brother Graham," Maya told Harry, and he smiled at Graham kindly, receiving a small one in return. "And this is Natalie MacDonald, our friend, though I still say she's more Graham's friend than mine."  
  
Harry smiled at Natalie as well, but he also looked at her a bit curiously. He remembered that it was the fact that her parents were both Muggle-born that made Maya realize that blood didn't make all that much of a difference in anything but politics in the wizarding world.  
  
Graham seemed to be like Astoria had been at this time last year — watching, learning, and calculating, all without saying anything else. Natalie, on the other hand, reminded Harry more of Neville when he had confidence — strong, willing to do what she could for her friends, and quite brave. He had a feeling that the two friends wouldn't be in the same House at Hogwarts, but that probably wouldn't drive them apart with how close of a friendship Maya had told him they had.  
  
"Come in, enjoy the water, and meet some of the others," Harry told them. "Natalie, Graham, you should go talk to the younger blond over there, Astoria Greengrass. She's only a year older than you and will be quite willing to help you all out when you get to Hogwarts in the fall, no matter what House you're Sorted into."  
  
"Thanks," Natalie said as she slipped into the water before turning to face Graham with a raised eyebrow, only confirming Harry's thoughts that she would probably be more of a Gryffindor than a Slytherin. "Are you coming in or not, Graham?"  
  
Graham followed his friend in finally, and they took off swimming towards Astoria. Natalie then introduced them both to the others, and a conversation ensued that even got Graham talking; Harry thought it was about Hogwarts, but he couldn't be sure.  
  
"Thanks for that," Maya said softly, sighing a bit as she slid into the pool as well. "I brought them along because they need to see all of us in a group setting. Plus, I want them to know who they can turn to when they get to Hogwarts this year. It'll also help loosen my brother up a bit; he acts like a Gryffindor when it comes to Natalie, but he's a Slytherin at all other times."  
  
"No problem at all, Maya," Harry told his friend. "It was a bit obvious that Graham is worried about being here, but hopefully the others will let him relax so that he can enjoy himself. Otherwise, I think it's great that you brought them over for the party. None of us minds at all if you bring friends or siblings over. The more the merrier."  
  
With that, Harry took of swimming towards Ginny and Tracey, Maya right behind him.

…

"And Harry is after the Snitch with Patricia right behind him!" Natalie called, her _Sonorus Charm_ easily carrying her words to the players; she had been quite willing to commentate a Quidditch match. "Ouch! A nice Bludger shot by Astoria; it completely missed Harry, but stopped Patricia in her tracks! And Harry has the Snitch! Slytherin team wins 310-180!"  
  
"Nice game," Harry told the Gryffindor girls with a smile. "I was afraid there for a moment when you were basically right beside me, Patricia. If Astoria hadn't aimed that Bludger so well, it would have been a fight for the Snitch."  
  
"I noticed that, too," the Gryffindor Seeker replied. "Let's hope that we can do something like that during the match this year, just to give everyone a show."  
  
"We'll try," Blaise told them all, smiling as he put his arm around Harry's shoulders and the other around Daphne's. "It was an excellent game."  
  
"Hey, Harry, when does Bole leave again?" Draco called from over where he was talking with Astoria and Tracey.  
  
"This year, I believe, why?" he replied, but Draco only shrugged as he went back to their conversation. "I'm not even going to bother asking until later," Harry told the people around him, drawing laughs from them.

…

"Thanks guys!" Harry told all of his friends who had gotten him books. The books included ones on defensive spells, hand-to-hand combat, Potions, sword fighting, Charms, Quidditch, Transfiguration, and some Muggle novels.  
  
Opening the gift from Sirius, Harry dropped the box and stared at it in shock for a few moments before looking up at his godfather. He began looking back and forth between them before slowly reaching into the box and pulling out the _Firebolt_ held within.  
  
"Sirius, no way!" he gasped in awe as he ran a hand over the wood of the broom. "Is this really —?"  
  
"It is," Sirius told him with a nod.  
  
"Is that a _Firebolt_?" Angelina was finally able to demand, and Harry nodded wordlessly, unable to speak.  
  
"Think of this as twelve years of birthday and Christmas gifts, Harry," Sirius said to his godson, a smile on his face. Harry suspected later on that Sirius was enjoying the awe and happiness he could put on his godson's face.  
  
"We're never going to win another Quidditch match," Patricia groaned to nobody as she looked up the ceiling in despair. "The kid is already amazing on a _Nimbus 2000_ and a _Nimbus 2001_ , but he now has the best broom in the world. We're so doomed."  
  
Harry and his Slytherin friends all laughed at Patricia's antics, as did all of the others not on the Gryffindor team.  
  
"You're going to try that out later, right?" Ginny asked Harry, and he could only nod as he slowly put the broom back into the box and moved onto his other gifts.  
  
Ginny had gotten him a green stone statue of a basilisk, which drew odd looks from everyone else as they both laughed at the gift, but they all knew better than to ask.  
  
" _You didn't have a sword through its head_ ," Harry hissed to her in amusement as they laughed. Ankh was looking at the statue of the snake and hissing in a snake's version of laughter as he realized why Ginny had gotten Harry that specific statue.  
  
" _I thought Sebae would prefer it if the statue of her was as not dead as she is_ ," Ginny replied as they finally stopped laughing.  
  
"This isn't another snake, right?" Harry asked in amusement when he saw that Daphne, Astoria, Theo, and Blaise had all gone together on his gift again, but they only smiled in response.  
  
Much to Harry's surprise, he opened the small package and was met by the sight of a dagger. Blinking slightly, Harry lifted it out of the box and unsheathed it. The sheath was made of a black dragonhide of some sort. Looking at the dagger itself, Harry had to hold in a smile. They had managed to find a dagger with a snake carved into the hilt and small stones of all four House colors scattered over the hilt.  
  
Before Harry could thank them, Draco handed Harry his gift, and Harry opened it to find a few pieces of the dragonhide cord as well as a small pouch that had a little weight to it, meaning there was something in it. Opening the pouch, Harry was surprised to find a collection of throwing knives in it.  
  
"I gave Draco the knives," Remus told Harry as he pulled one out and felt the weight in his hand. "They're charmed to always return to the pouch, sort of like the ones you have on that special sheath do, and I can put the charm on more if you get them. Those knives aren't as good as the ones you already have, but it means you'll have more of them if you need them. This is my birthday gift."  
  
"Thank you, all of you," Harry said to his friends and honorary uncle. "These are wonderful gifts. I'll definitely use them."  
  
Putting the gifts to the side, Harry pulled Tracey's to him. Opening the small box that was a perfect cube made of a really nice wood and had his initials on it, he had to smile up at her. Harry pulled out the Golden Snitch and held it in his hand, making sure to hold it with his finger tips so that he could claim it as his own.  
  
"Thanks Trace," he told her, and that was all that needed to be said.  
  
Tracey's parents gave him a book that said to open it when he got back to Sirius' house, so he just thanked them and put it in the pile with the rest of his gifts.  
  
"Thanks everyone," Harry said to all of his friends with a smile.

…

The _Firebolt_ responded more to Harry's thoughts than his body, which amazed him to no end. It was making flying, which was already an amazing freedom to him, feel even more amazing. He let out a laugh as he did a vertical dive towards the ground, pulling out of it just in time and then racing around the house.  
  
"This is amazing!" he called to his friends as he passed over them.  
  
Before anyone could say anything to him he was too far away to hear, climbing up into the air again for another dive. He kept it up for another long while before he finally landed by his friends, a huge smile on his face.  
  
"Thank you so much!" he told Sirius as he hugged him tightly. "This broom is bloody fantastic!" he added as he let his godfather go.  
  
"Can we have a go?" Ginny asked Harry with a smile on her face and a look in her eye. The look worried him as it promised him a good hex if he didn't let the others try, so he threw the broom over her head to Draco.  
  
"You gave me that _Nimbus 2001_ second year, so I think it's only fair that you're the first to ride my new broom," he told the shocked boy as Ginny glared at him. Luckily, Ginny realized why he was letting Draco go first and calmed down as the blond boy took off into the air, actually laughing and cheering as he rode the new broom.  
  
"Draco is never this carefree," Daphne muttered just loud enough for those closest to her to hear.  
  
"That broom will make anyone laugh and cheer," Harry told her and the other Slytherins.

…

"Are you hoping for anything tomorrow?" Harry asked Tracey quietly as he moved to sit next to her on the couch with another slice of cake.  
  
"Just a chance to have fun with my friends and family," she told him with a smile.  
  
"I think that's what birthdays are for," he said after they just ate cake for a few minutes. "Having fun with friends and family; enjoying the day."  
  
"That's what we try to do, at least," Tracey said. "Plus, with our friends, who couldn't have fun when we're together?"  
  
"You have a point," Harry admitted with a laugh as he watched the twins turn Hermione purple and she yelled at them while most of the room laughed. "We've got some of the best friends around."

…

"Happy Birthday, Trace," Harry said as he gave Tracey the gift he and Ginny had gotten her together.  
  
She opened the piece of parchment in confusion until she read it. Her eyes widened and it wasn't possible to see her eyebrows because they were hidden in her hairline. Harry smiled at her when her head flashed up to look at him, and he gestured to Ginny, who was behind Tracey.  
  
When Tracey saw the little light-brown kitten, she held out her arms and Ginny gave Tracey her new kitten. She held it gently in the crook of her left arm as she scratched it behind the ears. The little kitten was only about three months old, Harry knew, so Tracey would be able to raise the kitten, but she wouldn't have to worry about feeding her milk or anything like that.  
  
Before Tracey was allowed to say anything, the others with colored Journals all began giving her other gifts, all of them different things to do with taking care of a kitten like toys, food, a cat box, litter, and a carrier. Once she had opened all the stuff, all Tracey could do was thank everyone.  
  
Finally, she was able to say something else, and it was a question for Harry.  
  
"You named Ankh after an Egyptian god, right?" she asked him, catching the attention of Ginny and the twins as they had been in Egypt the summer before.  
  
"It means life," Harry told her in response, knowing Tracey would hear the unspoken assent to her question, though it wasn't actually a god.  
  
"Is there a name for cats by any chance?" she asked, allowing her question to trail over to the three Weasleys.  
  
"Bast is the goddess of cats in Egyptian Mythology," Ginny told her friend after the twins shrugged in confusion. "What?" she asked as the twins stared at her. "I was curious about the mythology so Bill got me a few books for my birthday and Christmas, as you should probably remember. Besides, you both know I like cats, so that name stuck out for me."  
  
"I'm going to call you Bast, then," Tracey told her newly-named kitten.  
  
As everyone began playing with Bast, Harry watched his almost-twin in amusement. She was looking around the room quite a lot as well as the clock. He knew that she wanted those who weren't part of the colored Journal group to leave so that she could change into her Animagus form and play with her kitten that way, but she also didn't want to seem rude or anything of the sort. It was a very amusing scene for him.  
  
Finally, people began to leave, and Tracey began to relax. When Maya, her brother, and Natalie finally left, she transformed right away, drawing laughs from everyone.  
  
"She's been waiting to do that since we gave her Bast," Harry commented off-handedly as he watched Tracey walk cautiously over to Bast and then start playing with her.  
  
"So _that's_ why she had been watching the clock and the people leaving," Hermione muttered, and Harry raised an eyebrow without looking at her.  
  
"Seriously, am I the only one who knew why she was so anxious?" he asked aloud, and no one answered him for a moment.  
  
"I knew," Ginny stated as she bent down on her knees by the two cats and held out her hand for them. "Of course, we both knew she would react like this when we got her the kitten, so that might be why."  
  
"I guessed that might be the reason," Harry heard Theo whisper under his breath, only hearing it because of his heightened senses after his transformation.  
  
" _At least I'm not the only one other than Ginny to understand Trace, but why does it have to be Theo?_ " Harry muttered to himself in Parseltongue, which drew Ginny's attention because she stiffened slightly even though she didn't turn around.  
  
" _Because those two are always watching each other?_ " she commented quietly, and Harry had to fight to keep his groan internal before he thought about her response.  
  
" _What do you mean by that_?" he asked as he tried to hide his confusion.  
  
" _Exactly what I said: Tracey and Theo watch one another_ ," she replied in a tone that made Harry realize she was rolling her eyes.  
  
" _When, exactly, do they watch one another? And how in the world does that mean he understands her_?" Harry asked as he moved to sit on the couch so that he could watch both the two cats on the floor and Ginny as she played with them.  
  
" _Mostly during meals, though probably during class as well_ ," she told him while rolling a ball for Bast to chase while Tracey watched her. " _As for the second question, I have a question: Do you understand me and Tracey?_ "  
  
" _You know I do,_ " Harry replied in confusion as he tried to figure out why she was asking that without giving away that they were talking almost silently.  
  
" _Well, you watch and talk to us, right? That's what those two do, and they've known one another longer than you've known either of us_."  
  
" _So you're saying it shouldn't be a surprise to me that they understand one another_ ," Harry stated.  
  
" _Exactly,_ " Ginny replied smugly as she flashed him a smile that showed her smugness.

…

"What's the gift that Samuel and Daniella got you?" Remus asked as Harry went downstairs the morning of August 2nd and into the kitchen.  
  
"Oh, I never opened it," Harry admitted as he went back upstairs to get the book.  
  
When he got back into the kitchen, he went to the table and sat down in his usual spot, the book in front of him. The cover reminded him of the Journals: Soft, yet stiff. The book itself was about the size of a textbook, though a lot thinner and lighter.  
  
Opening it, Harry was shocked to see that it seemed to be a book full of charms. Blinking multiple times, he closed the book and saw that there was now a title on the book: _How to Make, Charm, and Personalize the Journals._  
  
"Bloody Hell!" he exclaimed loudly, surprising the two Marauders, but he barely noticed. "No way!"  
  
"What is it, Harry?" Remus asked the shocked boy.  
  
"He-he gave me instructions on how to build the Journals!" Harry told the two adults in the room as he looked up at them. "Everything he's done, all of his research, everything! It's all here in this book!"  
  
"You'd better take care of that book then," Sirius said, and Harry then realized that the two Marauders weren't very surprised by what he had told them.  
  
"You knew, didn't you?" he accused them, and they both had the thought to look at least slightly guilty as they nodded.  
  
"He told us what they planned to give you," Remus admitted.  
  
"Thank him for me, then," Harry said as he grabbed a couple pieces of toast and a bottle of water before heading back up to his room, planning to read the book and learn as much as he could from it.


	5. Chapter Five

A few days after the parties, Harry, Ginny, and Tracey were sitting in his bedroom, the only three kids in the house for the day. Harry had finally finished reading through the book from Tracey's parents and wanted the two of them, and them alone, to see it.

"I can't read anything in this, Harry," Ginny said after a minute. "It's all messed up."

"Well, I can read it," Tracey said quietly without lifting her eyes from the book.

"Samuel probably charmed it so that only you and I can read it, Tracey; sorry, Gin," Harry sighed, wishing Ginny could read it as well.

"It makes sense," she agreed, albeit a bit sadly. "Maybe you can ask him for it to include me," she said a moment later, looking hopeful.

"We'll try, Ginny, we'll try," Tracey told her as she finally looked up from the book in her lap.

"Trace, why don't you read that while Ginny comes over here with me?" Harry suggested, and Tracey nodded before reading more.

"What is it, Harry?" Ginny asked as she walked over to the corner of the room, which was where Harry had left his school trunk and a dragonhide bag from his Family Storage Vault.

"This is the bag that shrinks only books, and I've kept some books in here for two years now," he sighed sadly. "I just never got up the nerve to actually look at them, but I think it's time that I do now."

Ginny grabbed the bag and then went to go sit next to Harry against the wall, putting an arm around his waist as he took the bag from her and opened it. The first book he pulled out was a journal written by his mother about her life. When he realized which book it was, Harry had to fight back the tears threatening to fall. He felt Ginny's arm tighten around him, obviously figuring out what the books were.

Slowly he opened the journal and saw that it was from before her time at Hogwarts, which meant Professor Snape would probably be in it.

_February 1, 1971_

_Today Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts, came to visit. She explained magic and Hogwarts to my parents better than Severus and I had already. They're letting me go, and Sev was so happy to find out that I had finally been visited. We're both looking forward to Hogwarts so much!_

_June 25, 1971_

_Sev and his Mum helped my parents, Tuney, and me find Diagon Alley. We all went and got our supplies. Sev thinks I'm crazy for already opening the History of Magic book, but I want to find out more about magic. He's only interested in the spells and potions, so we'll both probably be reading those books a lot, but I'm reading about the history of magic on my own._

_August 31, 1971_

_We leave for Hogwarts tomorrow! Finally, after almost two whole years, it's finally time to go and see Hogwarts. Sev is just as excited as I am, even if his Dad is furious about it. Tuney is acting really oddly, but it might just be because she won't see me often anymore. I just hope it isn't because of the letter Professor Dumbledore sent her saying she can't come to Hogwarts that Sev and I found… I really hope it isn't._

_September 1, 1971_

_Tuney called me a Freak today! It was just terrible. She hates me now, and it's just not fair. It's not like it's my fault that I'm magical and she's not so she can't come to Hogwarts with me. Why is she so angry with me?_

_Sev got Sorted into Slytherin like he wanted, and I'm in Gryffindor. Unfortunately, that means I'm stuck with Sirius Black and James Potter. Both of them are so ARROGANT! Argh! They were on the train with Sev and me in the beginning and were making fun of him so we left. Why do I have to be stuck with them?_

Harry closed the journal after reading those few entries, and he saw Ginny was looking at him closely, but he couldn't say anything to her.

Aunt Petunia had called his Mum as Freak as well? Was that where the name for him had come from? His Dad and Godfather had treated Snape badly without even knowing him? What else would he learn from these journals?

"Harry?" Ginny asked quietly, and he finally turned to face her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he choked out. "I'm fine."

"No you aren't," Tracey stated as she walked over and sat down across from Harry. "Can I see, please?" Her hand was out, waiting for the journal, and Harry gave it to her slowly. She quickly read what they had read and looked up at Harry sympathetically.

"That's where the name came from, then," she said softly, which Harry could tell from her movements confused Ginny. "Harry's aunt, his mother's sister, called him a Freak as he grew up; now we know where it came from," Tracey told Ginny.

"What?" Ginny gasped in a mixture of shock and anger.

"I'll tell you later," Tracey told the younger girl quietly. Harry could feel her gaze on him even though he was looking at his hands in his lap, and he knew Ginny had understood Tracey's meaning because she didn't say another word.

Before either girl said another word, Harry pulled out one of his father's journals from his fourth year and started reading it.

_September 27, 1974_

_Sirius charmed Snivellus's hair pink for the entire day. It was such a laugh, even if Evans did yell at us for it. Man, she's beautiful, but she has such a temper. I guess the summer didn't do much for it._

_October 8, 1974_

_Evans still won't agree to go out with me. It's such a shame. Anyway, the Animagus transformation is coming along, but we're still not close yet. It'll be another year yet at the rate we're going._

_Oh, and Padfoot stuck Snivellus's feet to the ground between classes, and he couldn't un-stick himself!_

_December 15 1974_

_Just another 3 days until break and I can go home. Padfoot decided he wants to join me for Christmas, so it's going to be great! Now if only I could get Evans to go out with me…_

_March 27, 1975_

_I'm officially 15 today! Padfoot got me Quidditch stuff, Moony got me chocolate again, Wormy got me Sugar Quills, and my parents sent me a new broom! I've now got a Nimbus 1000! It's going to make being a Chaser on the Team so much easier. They'll never keep up with me now!_

_June 2, 1975_

_Exams are almost upon us. Padfoot and I have been pranking as much as we can. The Slytherins spent a day in Gryffindor colors last week. Snivellus could only walk backwards yesterday. Today Snivellus keeps tripping all over the place. It's the only way we can keep the tension low for the two of us. Unfortunately, Moony is studying just as much as Evans (Who still won't go out with me!) is._

Harry closed the journal and passed it to the two girls, knowing they would take it from him anyway. In his mind he was remembering the stories he had heard from Snape, Moony, and Sirius about those times, both for his mother and his father. All that they had written matched up. Unfortunately, it just showed that his father really had been a bully. Making Snape trip all over the place? Snape only being able to walk backwards? No wonder his Head of House despised his father.

"Wow," was all Ginny could say as she passed Tracey the journal.

"Did you know about your Dad and Snape?" Tracey asked as she passed Harry back the journal.

"Yeah," he sighed as he put the journal away again. "Moony, Sirius, and someone else all told me about it," he admitted. "It's just hard seeing it written down like this… My Dad bullied Snape almost every day like it was a game, a joke. How could he have done this?"

"Harry, your father was fourteen!" Ginny exclaimed to make him stop. "He was a teenage boy doing stupid, teenage boy things. Of course he should feel guilty about his actions, but all boys do stupid things sometimes."

"I take offense to that," Harry stated with narrowed eyes, making the two girls laugh before he joined them moments later. "And you're right, Gin," he sighed after they were done laughing. "I already knew that when I was told the stories, but it's still hard at times to realize that he was a bully like my cousin and that Snape has a valid reason to hate my own father."

"That would be hard," Ginny admitted, "but you have to remember that he matured and changed in the end. Think about the older James Potter, not the teenaged one."

"Thanks Gin," Harry sighed and he put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed for a moment before letting go. "So, should we look at these Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration journals?"

…

"You can teach Ginny sometime in the future how to make the Journals, but I would prefer it if you kept this information to yourselves for now," Samuel told Harry and Tracey when they both brought the book to him to ask about Ginny.

"It's okay," Harry sighed, knowing Gin would be disappointed but would understand.

…

"Hey, Padfoot, Moony?" Harry called as he walked into the kitchen one evening after all of his friends had gone home for the night, most of their games in Grimmauld Place done for the summer as the Quidditch World Cup was in a couple of weeks.

"Yeah, Pup?" Sirius said as Harry sat down across the table from them.

"Would you be willing to teach me how you made the Marauder's Map?" he asked as he pulled out the Map, the book on how to make Journals, his Journal, and a bunch of pieces of parchment the same size as the Map.

"Why would you need to know that, Harry?" Remus asked.

"Because I'd like to make my own Map or five?" he replied, slightly sarcastic as if to say that it was obvious.

"What's with the Journal stuff?" Sirius asked before Remus could start asking Harry more questions and annoy the young Slytherin.

"The Journals can have things added to them, charms and such," Harry told Sirius and Remus as he smirked, a glint in his eye that both Marauders had seen in James and Lily. "I thought that Tracey and I could take the charms used to make the Map, add some stuff, change some stuff, and make our own Maps in the Journals, though they'd still have the basics from yours."

Harry watched as Sirius and Remus shared looks. He could tell that they were impressed by what he was saying. It was obvious that Sirius would persuade Remus to teach Harry, maybe even giving him their research for the Map.

"You think like a true Marauder, Pup," Sirius finally said as he reached over and ruffled Harry's hair, making him move away in annoyance. "Moony, can you go find the book in the library? You know where we left it."

"Book?" Harry asked as Remus got up and left the kitchen, obviously headed to the library.

"The book with all the research we did on the Map and exact details on how we did each part of it," Sirius explained to his godson. "We were thinking about giving it to you when you left school, possibly, but now is an even better time if you're thinking like this. Maybe I'll even give you some of the journals with our spells and potions we used for pranks sometime in the near future." Harry's godfather winked at him and smiled just before Remus came back in.

Harry accepted the red and gold book offered to him with the words "Mischief Managed" on the cover. He smiled mischievously as he opened it and began reading.

…

"So we should use this charm instead of this one, right Trace?" Harry asked as he pointed out another charm in one of his many books and then pointed to the Map book.

"That looks about right," she agreed with a nod as she checked his work. "This charm can stay the same as it's the one that detects each ghost, human, and animal in the school and on the grounds," she added as she pointed to another in the Map book.

"True, but if we tweak it a bit with this one then we'll be able to have each group be a different color," Harry said as he showed her another spell he had found. "It would make finding the colored Journal people easier as well as each House, the teachers, Filch, Mrs. Norris, Peeves, the ghosts, and guests."

"You're right," Tracey admitted as she wrote down the charms on another piece of parchment among the ones surrounding them in Harry's bedroom. "Can we choose which is which color, though?"

"We can if we use this spell," he told her as he showed her another one. "Plus, we can make them flash colors with this one, and even have some outlined with this one!"

"This is going to be so useful," Tracey said with a smirk as she recorded the spells again.

"Imagine if we could do this for all of our homes and other places?" Harry asked her.

"We'll do that _after_ we've made our own version of the Map — one that can be added to and changed when we want it to be without us worrying about messing it up."

…

" _Why_ do we need dress robes?" Harry whined as Sirius and Remus made him go into the robe shop to buy dress robes as they got his supplies. The Davises and Greengrasses followed them in, all of them amused.

"Because there's going to be a ball at Hogwarts this year, Harry," Sirius told him patiently, though his patience was wearing thin. "Moony and I have already explained this multiple times."

"You have yet to explain _why_ there's going to be a ball at Hogwarts, so until you do, I'm not buying dress robes," Harry stated as he crossed his arms over his chest and stood still against the wall of the shop.

"Thought I heard you whining over here, Potter," Draco said as he and his parents walked over with a couple of packages. "Did your godfather not tell you about the Triwizard Tournament yet?"

"The _what_?" Harry asked of his friend, completely ignoring the use of his surname as he knew it was because of his parents.

"It's a tournament between Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons where there's one champion from each school, and all three compete in three Tasks," Draco told the group despite the adults of Harry's group trying to make him stop. "Sad that you didn't already know, Potter. I'd have thought your ex-convict of a godfather would have told you, but I guess I was mistaken."

"No, he decided that keeping it a secret would be much more fun," Harry growled as he glared at his godfather, reminding all of those in the group who knew of his Animagus form why he was a wolf. "Thank you for the information, Malfoy. I believe I have some dress robes to buy. I'll see you at the Quidditch World Cup?"

"I'll be looking for all of you," he agreed before turning to his father. "I believe we're done here, Father." Malfoy Senior nodded and led his son and wife from the shop.

Harry stalked off without waiting for an explanation, going to get his measurements taken before searching through the dress robes to find some emerald green ones that matched his eyes. They even had some silver in them, making them perfect for a Slytherin. He did all of his shopping without a word except to the one helping him make his purchases, then he sat in a chair by the entrance, waiting for the others to finish.

"Harry," Sirius said cautiously as he walked over to where the Slytherin was sitting.

"What?" he snapped at his godfather, still annoyed that he hadn't told him about the tournament earlier.

"The reason I didn't tell you is because no student is supposed to find out these things until the first night of term."

"And? You're a Marauder! You should have told me!" Harry exclaimed as he finally looked at his godfather. "Bloody hell, Padfoot, since when have you turned into a goody-two-shoes? You're as bad as Hermione now, always wanting to follow the rules. Where did my prankster godfather go?"

Harry got up and left the shop, waiting outside to calm down. He knew blowing up at his godfather wasn't really a Slytherin thing to do, but he was furious right now. Finding out about the Triwizard Tournament from Draco when he was acting like the son his father wanted was the worst possible way to find out, and he wanted his godfather to realize it.

"Harry," he heard Tracey say softly from beside him. Harry hadn't even noticed she had joined him outside in his current mood. "You need to calm down, Harry. We both know you don't want to blow up at Sirius like you are." Harry was about to argue that he was right, but she interrupted him.

"I know you're right about what you just said to him, but you need to calm down. Your Gryffindor side is showing yet again, Harry, and we both know it," she added with a smirk that instantly made him calm down.

"Thanks, Trace," he muttered as he sighed. "By the way, I'm a true Gryffindor when it comes to my heart; in all other ways, I'm a Slytherin."

With that, Harry walked back inside smirking, leaving Trace staring after him with a small smile on her face.

…

Harry swung Gryffindor's Sword at a dummy up in the attic of Grimmauld Place yet again, practicing his sword moves with the first sword that truly felt completely balanced in his hand, though the one he had been practicing with was comfortable enough to fight with.

Metal clanged against metal as the magical dummy met his move and launched a counterstrike that Harry parried quickly before aiming another slash at the dummy. Again the dummy blocked, making Harry move faster as he tried to disarm the dummy. It took a few more minutes, but he finally used a trick he hadn't used in a while that sent the sword flying.

Clapping from behind him caught him by surprised and he spun around to see Ginny clapping lightly with a smile on her face.

"Better than I would have done with a dummy at that level," she told him as she threw Harry a towel wrapped around a bottle of cold water, which he opened after sheathing Gryffindor's sword in the sheath that both of his swords fit in.

"Better than I'd be able to do with my other sword," Harry admitted with a sheepish smile after a long drink of water. "This one is just a lot more balanced and easier to use for me."

"Why didn't you buy yourself a balanced sword from the goblins so that this one could be kept hidden?" Ginny asked curiously as they both sat down on one of the mats.

"I tried that," Harry sighed. "Tried every sword in my vault and Sirius' but none of them were balanced. Hell, Sirius even agreed to pay for one that the goblins already had made, but not a single one was balanced for me. I told him to just not bother and got the sword that was the most balanced for me from my vault. Figured out that it would be hard to use almost any sword but Gryffindor's after a while."

"You do know that the goblins could probably make a sword for you that would work, right?" Ginny said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, I know," Harry said with a smirk. "Sirius doesn't realize it, but I heard him talking to a goblin about making me a sword using the little things I complained about. From what I can tell, I'll be getting a sword made for me at Christmas from him. When he wasn't looking I mentioned to the goblin that I had used Gryffindor's Sword just fine when I was twelve. It earned me a curious look before the goblin understood that I was giving him a sword to base my own off of."

"That's smart," Ginny stated as she stole Harry's bottle and drank some without putting her mouth to it.

"I might be wielding Gryffindor's Sword, but I'm definitely a Slytherin," Harry said as he grabbed his bottle back with a scowl.

"The fact that you have Slytherin's Dagger shows that," Ginny reminded him with a smile, pointing to the Dagger on his left arm that only she, Tracey, and Harry could see.

"It's curious that I'm the one with both Slytherin's Dagger and Gryffindor's Sword, if you ask me," Harry sighed as he moved to lie on his back, his eyes closed.

"How so?" Ginny asked curiously, realizing that it did sound a bit odd.

"Well, if you ask me, it shows the two Houses I'd best fit in with," he said. "I've got a Gryffindor heart most of the time while I think like a Slytherin most of the time. Sometimes my Gryffindor side takes over, like when I went to rescue you or when I got annoyed at Padfoot the other day, but otherwise I let my Slytherin side rule me."

"That really is interesting," Ginny said thoughtfully. "You're also loyal to your friends, family, and loved ones, and you're definitely smart, but Gryffindor and Slytherin do seem to be the two Houses you're most like."

"Maybe that's why I was able to pull the Sword from the Hat," Harry suggested as he felt Ginny lie down next to him, probably just because she felt like it. "Or why I'm able to bring the Houses together; only someone who _could_ fit in with both of those two Houses could do it, probably. Plus, I could fit into any House, which makes my uniting the Houses even easier."

"True," Ginny agreed. "It's probably why you've got both the Dagger and the Sword, _and_ why you're the only one in a thousand years to bring the Houses together."

"Well, I'd better hide the Sword before Sirius sees it," Harry said with a groan as he stood up and helped Ginny up. "He'll ask where I got it from, and I'm really not in the mood to be answering questions like that, mostly because he'll guess from the way I walk that I've got a sword on me.

Ginny just snickered as they headed to his room so that Harry could hide the sword before Tracey came over to work on the Journals while Ginny found charms for them to use by their requests.

…

"And… _there_ ," Harry said proudly as he held up his and Tracey's Journals for her to see while Ginny also moved towards them to look. He passed both girls their Journals before opening his own.

" _I solemnly swear that I am up to no good_ ," he stated, knowing that it would work as long as he thought it as well, but wanting to say it aloud for the trial run.

Looking at his Journal while the girls did the same with their own, they all shared smug smiles before closing their Journals and putting them away, knowing this would drive the others up the wall when they finally showed them the project when school started.


	6. Chapter Six

Harry woke up screaming in pain and his hands over his lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Panting deeply, Harry closed his eyes against the pain that was slowly leaving him.

"Harry?" Sirius called as he ran from across the hall into Harry's room, Remus rushing up from downstairs along with Tracey and Ginny, who had decided to spend the night.  
  
"Sirius!" he cried with his hands still on his scar and his eyes still tightly closed, though this time as he tried to hold onto the memories of his dream.  
  
"What happened?" Remus asked, only slightly out of breath from the run up the stairs.  
  
"Wormtail, Voldemort, a Muggle man!" Harry managed to get out past the little bit of pain he still felt.  
  
"Tell us what you remember, Harry," Tracey said calmly, making the two men realize that having the two girls who knew Harry best there was probably a good thing.  
  
"Voldemort and Wormtail were talking," he gasped as he fought to remember. "Something about a Ministry woman — Bertha something; she's dead. Told Voldemort about a loyal follower still there and they're going to go to him sometime in the near future. Going to use him to get to — get to…" Here Harry faltered, not wanting to tell them the rest.  
  
Harry felt Ginny's hand on his back, smaller than Tracey's. She moved towards his ear and whispered into it. "Harry, just tell us the rest. We'll listen no matter how horrible. We're all here for you." He took strength from her quiet words and took a deep breath before continuing.  
  
"He's going to use the servant to get to me, to kill me," he said, but he didn't stop there as he tried to remember the smallest details as they slipped away. "Mentioned something about waiting a few more months for me. Then a snake, Nagini, came in and mentioned a Muggle man outside the door. Voldemort killed him."  
  
"Is that all?" Remus asked for the group, and Harry opened his eyes to see Remus was leaning against the doorway, pale. Sirius was sitting in his desk chair, head in his hands as he shook it. Tracey and Ginny were on either side of him.  
  
"All I can remember," he replied softly, closing his eyes again and trying to take comfort from his friends.  
  
"We'll have to tell Samuel and Daniel about this tomorrow," Remus said, probably to Sirius, Harry thought even though he wasn't looking.  
  
"Do you think you can get more sleep, Harry?" Tracey asked quietly from beside him, and he opened his eyes to look at her worried face.  
  
"I think so, but if I can't, I'll just go upstairs and train until I'm exhausted and sleep again," he replied.  
  
"Why don't you three go do that now?" Sirius asked, speaking up for the first time. "All of us are awake and probably need something to do so that we can get rid of the adrenaline flowing through us right now."  
  
"Plus the fear of the idea of Voldemort being after me," Harry muttered so quietly that Remus and Sirius couldn't pick up on it from the other side of the room but Tracey and Ginny could with their heightened hearing. "Sure," he said louder as he stood up slowly.  
  
"Let's all go change," Ginny suggested. "We'll meet upstairs and run through some drills for a while."

…

"You okay, Harry?" Ginny asked as they walked into the attic, and he nodded.  
  
"I'm fine," he said, not giving anything away on his face or in his voice.  
  
"Then let's spar a bit," Tracey suggested from behind them.  
  
Harry and Ginny faced off while Tracey watched.  
  
Ginny aimed a roundhouse kick at Harry's head, but he blocked it and ducked lower before aiming a punch at her side. Ginny step-sided and aimed a few punches that Harry easily blocked. Harry then faked a few punches and kicks before throwing a strong backhand that caught Ginny in the side hard, though she barely made a sound before aiming a side kick at him.  
  
When Harry caught the kick, he took advantage of it and swept her to the ground, getting a mount on her before Ginny knew what was happening, the speed of the move catching her off guard a bit. Figuring out what was happening, Ginny tried to force him onto his hands by bumping her body up, but he held his ground until she bumped him up and twisted him over in the same move so suddenly that she managed to roll him over.  
  
Harry had Ginny in a guard, but they both knew that she was at an advantage because, if she got out of the guard, she would have the chance at a mount. Ginny tried to elbow her way out of the guard while keeping her arms to her chest, but Harry kept his legs around her tightly and grabbed an arm, fighting to pull it to him. Fighting with all she had, Ginny managed to continue trying to pull out of the guard while keeping her arms to herself.  
  
Growling in frustration, Harry used more force and got her arm in his hold. Barely taking a moment to smile at his success, he took his right leg and spun it around Ginny's head, forcing her onto her back while still holding onto her left arm. Pressing his thighs together, Harry lifted himself from around her until Ginny used her other arm to tap the ground loudly.  
  
Finally taking the chance to smile as he let go of Ginny and sat on his knees, catching his breath, Harry helped Ginny sit up. She was obviously upset that he had won, but she was also smiling as she panted. Both of them knew that if Harry hadn't been a few inches taller than her and weighed more, it would have been much tougher for him. Harry had been using his size and weight to his advantage while on the ground.  
  
"That was amazing," Tracey said as she passed both of them a bottle of water. "You were both moving really fast, and it looked as if you had almost gotten out of Harry's guard there for a moment, Ginny. Nice job using more force so suddenly, Harry; that threw her off guard."  
  
"Thanks, Tracey," Harry replied as he lifted the bottle to his mouth, taking a large drink before talking again. "Why don't the two of you fight before I fight with Trace? Tracey might be a bit taller than you, Gin, but she weighs less than I do."  
  
Both girls nodded and he moved out of the way, taking Gin's bottle of water with him.  
  
They faced off to one another and began sparring; all three knew that after Tracey and Harry had fought all three of them would have worked off enough steam and energy to go to sleep.

…

"He never gets a break, does he?" Samuel sighed as Remus finished explaining to him and Daniel what Harry had told them the night before.  
  
"No, he doesn't," Sirius growled, his shock from the night before having turned into anger at Wormtail, or Peter Pettigrew, as he was once called.  
  
"What do you think this means?" Remus asked the two men.  
  
"I think it means the Dark Lord is returning," Daniel stated darkly, yet truthfully. "We'll have to tell our children to be careful this year, especially with the Triwizard Tournament going on; it would be the perfect time for unknowns to get into the school."  
  
"Very true," Samuel agreed. "Well, we'll see you men at the Cup?"  
  
"Of course," Sirius exclaimed, his anger dissipating at the mention of Quidditch. "Are you sure you and your family don't want to join the rest of us, Daniel?"  
  
"I'm pretty sure the girls will disappear on us, but Elaine and I will use our tickets," Daniel admitted.  
  
"Well, I told the Minister that I have enough tickets in the box he gave me that he should save the two Top Box tickets he had offered," Sirius admitted. "There are just too many adults not to sit with them. Besides, the other seats are right under the Top Box, so it'll be perfect anyway."  
  
"We'll see you all tomorrow, then," Samuel said with a smile as the other three men got up and took their leave."

…

"Why does the Portkey have to leave at seven in the morning?" Daphne muttered darkly as she stood around in the living room of Grimmauld Place, waiting for their time to leave.  
  
"You shouldn't really be complaining," Harry commented lightly as he tried to hold in a snort at Daphne's behavior. They had all been getting up at around five in the morning, yet she complained about this and not that? It made no sense to him.  
  
"Why not?" she snapped at Harry. He figured she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before.  
  
"Because Ginny and the twins have spent the last hour complaining about the fact that they were up at like three in the morning and their Portkey left around five. Plus, they had to _walk_ to it," he told her, smirking.  
  
"That's just evil," Astoria muttered for the group, all of them feeling sorry for their Weasley friends.  
  
"You should all be glad that the Ministry is still trying to make up for twelve years in Azkaban, then," Sirius told the group of kids as the adults walked in.  
  
Tracey, Astoria, Daphne, Blaise, Neville, Hermione, Maya, Graham, and Natalie were all at their home, taking advantage of the Portkey the Ministry had sent straight to Sirius instead of making him walk somewhere for it. All of their parents — or grandmother, in Neville's case — were there as well.  
  
Harry knew just by looking at his friends that all of the ones who had trained with weapons had them on them or in bags, just to be safe. It had been decided to warn their friends that Harry's scar had acted up after a dream that involved Voldemort, though they kept the fact that he was after Harry quiet. They had only informed the group of the dream so that their friends would realize they needed to be on guard from now on.  
  
Looking at Maya, Graham, and Natalie, Harry realized that Maya was as close of a friend to him as anyone else with a colored Journal and was probably level with Luna in how much he trusted her.  
  
Tracey caught his eye, and he knew that she had just been having the same thoughts. They would have to talk later on about what to do about it, and it would be a short, non-understandable conversation to anyone but them as they made some decisions.  
  
"All right you all, the Portkey is about to go off," Remus called out, drawing everyone's attention. They all put a finger on the long rope that he and Sirius were holding up from either end.  
  
The Portkey went off and dragged them with a pull on Harry's navel until they landed, most of the kids, including Harry, falling to the ground while the adults stayed standing. Sirius laughed at them until Harry kicked him in the thigh, very close to the one place he didn't want to be kicked; it shut him up very quickly.  
  
"Sirius Black's Residence, seven-oh-one in the morning!" a voice called as the kids all untangled themselves and got up quickly, most of them very used to being tangled in some of the oddest positions.  
  
Sirius and the adults dealt with the people collecting Portkeys and then led the teens off. It turned out that the Ministry had even provided a very large tent for the group, so they were all together, pleasing everyone.  
  
When they finally reached the tent, they found it to be a large gray one that was even bigger on the inside, with a room for each of them and more plus a kitchen, living room, five bathrooms, and a dining room. Harry, who hadn't expected the magical tent, had whistled as he entered and then walked around the place in a bit of a daze until he adjusted to the idea.  
  
Suddenly, his pocket heated up, and he knew the three Weasleys were being annoying again.  
  
_Harry: Are you really that bored?_  
  
Ginny: No, we're wondering where your tent is as you should all be here by now.  
  
Tracey: Look for the huge gray tent with MM as well as SB on the outside; we're pretty close to the forest.  
  
Ginny: Oh, we passed that tent on our way here. That thing's HUGE!  
  
Harry: You're telling me…  
  
Tracey: He wasn't expected the magical part of the tent. *Snickers*  
  
Harry: Oh be quiet, Trace, before I steal Bast until we go to Hogwarts.  
  
Tracey: You wouldn't!  
  
Harry: Stolen her before, and I'll steal her again.  
  
Ginny: Harry, stop it! Bast is her cat!  
  
Harry: I know that Gin, but she was being a pain last night, so I stole Bast for the night so she'd shut up and go to sleep… She kept me up half the night!  
  
Ginny: Hm… I'm with Harry on this one, sorry Trace.  
  
Tracey: *Mutters under breath* You're always with Harry when it comes to something like this…  
  
Ginny: And what is THAT supposed to mean?  
  
Tracey: Whatever you want it to, Ginny; whatever you want it to.  
  
Harry: STOP! Gin, you and the twins can come. Ron, too, if he's in the mood to be nice. Tracey, go annoy Hermione or something.  
  
Both Girls: *Rolls eyes and signs off*  
  
Harry: *Mutters* At least it's quiet again.  
  
Tracey: I heard that!  
  
Harry: Damn.

…

"The twins sent me ahead," Ginny said as she rushed into the tent. "Ron's coming. He wants to talk to you, Harry, and anyone else you decide he has to talk to. Just so you know, he's been acting a bit different all summer."  
  
"Do you think he's finally pulled his head out of his arse and grown a pair?" Blaise called from his spot on a bunk bed in another room with an open door.  
  
"Blaise!" Daniella exclaimed, knowing his mother wasn't with them.  
  
"Probably," Ginny replied with a smirk as she held in a laugh at Blaise's word choice.  
  
" _Finally_ ," Tracey, Blaise, Daphne, Hermione, and Neville sighed along with Harry, all of them having been there in first year when Ron had been a complete arse to them.  
  
"He hasn't been _that_ bad, guys," Ginny laughed as the others chuckled slightly.  
  
"Gin, the way you've seen him, he's bloody tame!" Blaise exclaimed, and all of the others in Harry's year nodded, all of them agreeing with even the wording used.  
  
"Hey, you lot!" Fred called out as he and George led Ron into the tent before the almost-fourth years could continue their case to Ginny and the others who hadn't been at school yet for their first year.  
  
"Look who's decided to come out of hiding and join the big boys!" George added as he pushed Ron forward a little.  
  
"Hey Ron, how bad were you in first year?" Ginny asked before anyone else could say anything.  
  
"Uh… Er…" Ron couldn't say anything, which Harry knew was a bad thing when it came to Ginny.  
  
"Threatened our good friends here, didn't he, Fred?" George said for Ron.  
  
"Thought they were all Death Eaters in disguise and were blackmailing or using dark magic on our friends from the other Houses," Fred agreed.  
  
"Stop!" Harry said as Ginny turned to Ron angrily and the twins looked to be continuing. "This isn't how we treat guests, friends, or family," he stated sharply, making all of the kids but Ron, Maya, Graham, and Natalie flinch slightly, recognizing the chastising their Alpha was giving them.  
  
"Welcome Ron," he then said, turning to the youngest Weasley boy. "Sorry about your siblings, but they've been in a mood for a while, and waking up early this morning probably hasn't helped." Ginny began to growl quietly at Harry for his comment, but he gave her a sharp look, and she stopped, realizing that they weren't to be rude at all right now.  
  
"We've all been up for a while," Ron said with a shrug as he walked further into the tent.  
  
"I believe we should all go into the dining room and leave the living room for the kids," Remus said, almost dragging Sirius from the room as the others followed.  
  
Harry slipped his wand from its holster and muttered a couple of spells so that Padfoot couldn't eavesdrop or sneak back in until they were done.  
  
"What brings you to our neck of the woods, Weasley?" Blaise asked, and then he winced as Tracey elbowed him for using surnames again. "Sorry, I meant Ron."  
  
"Well…" Ron started slowly, nervous now that they were all sitting in the living room of the tent without any adults in the room. "I've been thinking for a while now, ever since the end of our second year really, and I realized I never really gave you all a chance."  
  
"Understatement," Hermione muttered quietly enough that only the Animagi had a chance of hearing, but Harry still gestured for Ginny to elbow her lightly.  
  
"You see, I know my sister, and I realized that she wouldn't be friends with… well, with Death Eaters, whether junior ones or not," Ron said as he looked at his sister, who gave him a small smile.  
  
"And the Gryffindor has a brain!" Blaise exclaimed under his breath from next to Harry, who elbowed him.  
  
"I've been watching lately, and you're all just trying to make friends, not control people or anything… I'm sorry it took a while for me to figure it out, but… you can ask any of my siblings — I do things without thinking quite a lot." Ron rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment while the three other Weasleys in the tent nodded their agreement.  
  
"Do you know what my group of friends and I believe?" Harry asked Ron, knowing that he couldn't be included unless he knew, understood, and agreed.  
  
"Not really, but I can guess it has something to do with the Houses not mattering, since you're uniting them," Ron admitted.  
  
"Again I say: The Gryffindor has a brain," Blaise muttered, accepting Harry's elbow without regret as he knew he had to say it.  
  
"You've got part of it," Ginny told her brother, who looked at her, a bit surprised that she was the one answering instead of Harry.  
  
"You see, you're right in that we believe that the Houses don't matter, but we also believe that blood doesn't matter," Hermione said, and Harry had to hold in his smile as he knew that they were answering to represent Gryffindor as it was his House. Ron again looked surprised that it wasn't Harry answering, but he was listening.  
  
"So you're saying that not only do you not care if a person is in any House, but you don't care if they're Pureblood, Half-blood, or Muggle-born?" Ron asked in disbelief, and everyone nodded. "But Slytherins… Purebloods…" Ron couldn't say a full sentence through his shock.  
  
"Ron, we were all _eleven_ when we were Sorted," Harry said, taking over again. "Do you really think everyone is stuck in their ways by that age? Anyone can change if given another option that seems better, or just offered a chance. All I've done these past three years is shown another way of looking at things to everyone I can, and most take it."  
  
"Even Theo, who was raised by a Death Eater, decided he preferred Harry's way of thinking to his father's," Daphne told Ron, who stared at them all in disbelief.  
  
"All Harry did was exactly what happened with Lockhart: The seeds of doubt were laid, and everyone has seen for themselves what they want to see," Tracey said softly. "Harry told us of another way to live, but he did nothing more than clear another path; we chose whether to follow it or not. When the notes about Lockhart were passed around, all it did was make people realize that he might be a fraud, and everyone realized he was one after having him for a single class; no one forced the idea on them."  
  
"So all you're doing is giving them another choice and letting them decide?" Ron asked to be sure he was hearing right, and everyone nodded. "How are you doing it, though? I mean, I can see how you lay the ideas out just by talking, but how do they prove it to themselves?"  
  
"We sit in a class with another House and talk with someone of a different type of blood," Maya said. "All we do is talk and work together, and we all realize that what Harry says is true: We're all kids, just raised differently and with different traits."  
  
"Ron," Fred began.  
  
"Do you think Muggle-borns are beneath you, or Half-Bloods, just because you're a Pureblood?" George finished.  
  
"Of course not!" Ron exclaimed.  
  
"And do you think someone from another House, even Slytherin, is instantly evil or good or neutral or stupid or smart or anything other than just another person with different traits?" Ginny asked.  
  
"I used to, but… not anymore," Ron sighed.  
  
"Ron, can you see the thing in Ginny's hands?" Harry asked the final question as Ginny pulled out her red Journal with gold lining.  
  
"Ginny, where in the world did you get that Journal?" Ron asked his sister in pure shock and amazement.  
  
"He's changed," Harry stated with a smile. He slipped off of the couch he was sitting on and went to his bag, pulling out a black Journal before going back to where Ron was sitting.  
  
"Ron, do you agree with everything we do?" Harry asked in a formal voice.  
  
"Yes," he stated as he stood up, realizing something important was happening.  
  
"Do you promise to keep all of this a secret from anyone except someone who already knows?" Harry asked, still sounding like someone from a courtroom.  
  
"Yes," Ron repeated.  
  
"And do you promise to both listen to Hermione or me when we tell you something and to convince your friends of these ideas?" Harry asked.  
  
"Yes," Ron said again with only a moment of hesitation as he thought about the question.  
  
"Then this," Harry held out the black Journal that had never been claimed before, "belongs to you now."  
  
Ron grabbed the Journal, and Harry could tell that it had just added his name to the magic within all the Journals as well as accepted Ron as its owner. Ronald Weasley was now officially part of the Journal group.


	7. Chapter Seven

Harry sat down in the box the Ministry had given Sirius and just stared around the stadium. It was huge! Even more, there were advertisements, thousands of people, and just so much to see. He used his Omnioculars he had bought earlier that afternoon to look around the stadium.

"This is amazing," Harry told Tracey as he turned away from looking around the stadium.  
  
"I know," she said with a smile in his direction. "The match will be even better, though. Professional games are faster paced than Hogwarts ones."  
  
"You're really going to love this, Harry," Blaise agreed from the other side of Tracey as he looked around her to grin at Harry.  
  
"You know, Harry, you could probably go Pro after Hogwarts," Maya said from Harry's other side, turning away from the conversation between Graham and Natalie to join theirs.  
  
"Are you serious?" Harry asked, a bit shocked.  
  
"Harry, you can do a bloody Wronski Feint without even knowing it!" Blaise exclaimed, as if scandalized Harry didn't already know this. "You're probably the best Seeker Hogwarts has seen in years!"  
  
"I heard Oliver Wood saying that you were at least as good as Charlie Weasley back in your first year, and he could have played for England," Astoria added out of nowhere. "He was telling one of the Gryffindors in my year when I was there," she said with a shrug as they all stared at her. "They were wondering why they felt Gryffindor had no chance against Slytherin."  
  
"Bloody Hell, Harry, he said that about you in first year, and you've only gotten better since then!" Blaise said with wide eyes. "If there's one thing Wood knows, it's Quidditch, and he just paid you an amazing compliment there!"  
  
"Do you have any idea what you want to do after Hogwarts, Harry?" Daniella asked him, and Harry turned around to see that the adults were also listening in on the conversation.  
  
"I haven't really thought about it," he admitted. "I'm not even all that sure what there is to do in the wizarding world after Hogwarts."  
  
"Well, keep Quidditch as a possibility for after Hogwarts, but you don't really have to worry about it until fifth year when you talk with your Head of House about it," Samuel told Harry, though he was also talking to the others about the meeting.  
  
Harry nodded and turned back to the stadium just as Mr. Bagman, Head of the Department of Games and Sports at the Ministry, started the commentary from the Top Box right above them.  
  
In his opinion, the leprechauns were cool enough, but he took the advice of Remus over the advice of his godfather when he said to close his eyes and plug his ears when the Veela came. It made it amusing to see how Sirius had walked right up to the edge of the box and was beginning to climb out of it when the Veela left.  
  
When the match started, Harry paid more attention to the Seekers and searching for the Snitch than to the Chasers, though he did enjoy paying attention to the commentary and looking at the Chasers once in a while.  
  
"Has Krum seen the Snitch?" Tracey asked Harry when she saw Krum going into a dive, and Harry shook his head once.  
  
"He's Feinting really well," he told her. "The Snitch is over on the other side of the stadium, but neither he nor Lynch has seen it," he said almost absentmindedly as he looked between the two diving Seekers and the Snitch on the other side of the stadium, barely staying still for a moment before moving again.  
  
"Harry?" Tracey asked, and he raised a hand to acknowledge her so that she would continue without him having to stop chasing the Snitch with his eyes. "Can you really see the Snitch?"  
  
"Huh? Oh, yeah, it's actually coming our way right now," he said. "And that had to hurt Lynch… crashing like that. Too bad Krum is looking in the wrong direction to spot the Snitch," he continued, more to himself than to Tracey.  
  
"Tracey, is Harry actually watching the Snitch?" Harry heard Blaise ask.  
  
"I think he is," she replied, and Harry could tell that their gazes were on him instead of the match.  
  
"Bloody Hell, Harry, you found the Snitch faster than the Pros did!" Blaise exclaimed, drawing the attention of the rest of their friends to him, but Harry just kept on tracking the Snitch as best he could while keeping track of the other players.  
  
"Are you really tracking the Snitch, Harry?" Sirius asked him excitedly as Lynch finally stood up and the Irish supporters cheered.  
  
"Uh-huh," Harry replied absentmindedly, really just trying to keep an eye on the Snitch so that he could tell the others when the Seekers had spotted it.  
  
The others must have realized that he wasn't going to say much right now as they stopped questioning him and went back to watching the game. They all cheered as each of the next ten shots was scored by Ireland in fifteen minutes, but Harry barely paid attention other than to smile.  
  
Lynch seemed to be a little disoriented by his crash, and Krum was looking around as much as he could. If Harry had to wager a guess he would say that if Lynch saw the Snitch first, Krum would still get it, even if he had been further away from it. Being disoriented like he was would make it harder for Lynch to fly his best, and Krum was already better than him. Lynch seemed to be flying a bit recklessly to Harry, but he put it down to flying against a better Seeker.  
  
Harry's attention was finally captured by something other than the Seekers and the Snitch when the Veela, a race of beautiful people that were classified as magical creatures and have an allure that attracts the opposite sex that were the mascots for Bulgaria, started acting up, but he didn't pay much attention when he realized that it was the referee being stupid around the Veela.  
  
"Harry, are you even paying attention to this?" Hermione asked loudly, but he just shook his head.  
  
"Why should I watch him make a fool of himself when I can figure out which Seeker is going to catch the Snitch?" he replied.  
  
What he knew his friends didn't understand was that he was studying the Seekers, trying to learn from them. His friends had figured out that he had better eyes than the Seekers when it came to finding the Snitch if he only concentrated on it, but he was trying to learn from the Pros right now.  
  
Just then Krum took a Bludger to the face, and Harry could see that his nose was broken by both how it was bent and the amount of blood flowing out of it. His friends were screaming for a time-out for Krum, but Harry saw something they didn't.  
  
"Lynch has finally found the Snitch!" he screamed to his friends, making them all turn to look at Lynch long before they would have otherwise.  
  
Lynch was diving towards where the Snitch was headed, but Krum was on his tail. Harry, watching very closely, could see the excitement on their faces as they flew, but he also saw something else on Lynch's face, something like recklessness.  
  
"They're going to crash!" Hermione shrieked, but Harry was shaking his head as he figured it out.  
  
"Only Lynch is," he called to her just moments before Lynch plowed into the ground again.  
  
In the confusion of seeing Lynch crash, Harry saw Krum reach out and grasp the Snitch tightly in his hand before he sat up, pulling out of the dive with time to spare.  
  
"Where's the Snitch?" Blaise was asking, and Harry finally turned to look at his friends with a smile on his face.  
  
"Krum's got it; the match is over," he told his friends.

…

"That was amazing!" Graham exclaimed as they all headed back to the tent.  
  
"It really was," Maya agreed, smiling at her younger brother.  
  
"I _still_ can't believe you managed to follow the Snitch for over half the game!" Blaise told Harry as he slapped Harry on the back.  
  
"Oh, I lost it over and over again," Harry said with a chuckle, trying hard not to laugh at his friends' faces, "but I found it again every time."  
  
"Lost the bloody Snitch and kept finding it…" Blaise muttered under his breath as the others tried not to laugh at his disgruntled look.  
  
"That match was bloody amazing!" Ginny said as she rushed over to their group, walking alongside Harry once she caught up to them. "The twins actually bet that that would be the final result. A bit shocking they bet it so well."  
  
"Gin, you should know your brothers better than that," Harry said mockingly. "They wouldn't bet unless it was a sure thing."  
  
"It's nice to know we're appreciated," a twin said; Harry saw that it was Fred when he turned to look. He hadn't even heard them catch up to their group.  
  
"But it's saddening to know that our dear little sister doesn't trust us," George added with his head looking down towards the ground before looking up again.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ginny said with a wave of her hand. "Anyway, the match was amazing, but did you see what happened with the Veela and the ref? That was hilarious!"  
  
"It was," Daphne agreed with a laugh, everyone but Harry nodding in agreement as he hadn't really paid much attention to it.  
  
"Harry, my friend, you don't seem to understand what's so funny about it," George noted as they walked into the tent and sat down on couches and chairs.  
  
"Did you not see one of the most noticeable parts of the match?" Fred asked.  
  
"He barely saw anything," Natalie said with a snort that surprised the three Weasleys.  
  
"How did you miss anything?" Ginny exclaimed, unable to believe it.  
  
"He didn't take his eyes off the Snitch or the Seekers the entire match," Maya informed the three redheads.  
  
"Wait, you actually saw the Snitch during the match?" Fred asked with wide eyes.  
  
"Followed the thing for most of the match," Sirius called to the group as he headed into the kitchen to find Butterbeers for them all.  
  
"Harry, do you not know how amazing that is?" George asked as he saw that Harry wasn't really all that impressed.  
  
"Not really," he said with a shrug. "It wasn't that hard to find, and tracking it was easy enough once I had found it." Harry accepted a bottle of Butterbeer from his godfather with a smile that Sirius returned.  
  
"I watched him track the bloody thing and I'm still amazed by it," Blaise said to no one in particular as he shook his head and opened his own drink.  
  
"I think we need to reaffirm what Patricia said on his birthday, brother dearest," Fred said as he turned to face George, who was nodding in agreement already.  
  
"We're never going to win another match if this boy can track the Snitch at a pro game," George agreed.  
  
"Especially with him on a _Firebolt_ ," Ginny added with a bit of a sigh. "And I was thinking I might try out for the team when the girls left as a Seeker because we'll need one. I guess I'm going after a Chaser position instead."  
  
The twins stared at her in a bit of shock while Harry smirked slightly. He alone of the group, except perhaps Hermione, knew that Ginny had been stealing their brooms since she was six and flying at night. One thing he was sure of, though, was that he was the only person she had told that she wanted to be a Chaser but could also be a Seeker if need be; this was just her way of breaking the ideas to the twins.  
  
"You play, Ginny?" Maya asked when the twins didn't do anything but stare at her in a bit of shock.  
  
"Yeah, but these gits don't even know that I can fly," Ginny told the others with a gesture in the direction of her older brothers.  
  
Harry broke out laughing at the looks on the face of the twins, and he knew having them over in the tent would make the talk about the Quidditch match a lot of fun. Maybe he'd even hear about what had actually happened to the other players and the mascots.

…

_BANG!_  
  
Harry sat up wide awake in his bed as he heard a tent go flying. Looking around, all of his friends were waking up, all of them except Maya, Graham, and Natalie awake almost instantly.  
  
Jumping out of bed, Harry grabbed trousers and a T-shirt, changing as fast as he could before slipping his shrunken Gryffindor Sword, his shrunken broom, and his Journal into his pockets before slipping the Dagger, another two daggers, his throwing knives, and his other sword onto his body with their sheathes, making them become invisible almost instantly. Wand holster and wand were strapped on moments later.  
  
All of his friends who had been training were doing the same, though he had been the first to react so he was the only one ready. Soon enough, his friends were dressed and ready for anything that might happen.  
  
"Good, you're all up," Sirius said as he rushed into the hallway that had the rooms of the kids. "We've got to get out of here, _now_."  
  
Everyone followed Sirius instantly and rushed from the tent, only to freeze as they saw people in black robes with white masks on their faces, some levitating the Muggles from the entrance to the campsite while others launched tents through the air or burned them. All of the people in black robes were laughing laughs that showed enjoyment of the fear and chaos they were causing as well as what they were doing to the poor Muggle family, which consisted of a man, a woman, and two children, all of whom were being treated like puppets.  
  
Remus yelled at them to get moving, pointing towards the forest. Harry got the message and began leading his friends to the edge of the forest while most of the adults went towards the hooded people, wands out and ready to use.  
  
"They're going to try and help the Muggles," Harry told the others. "We need to wait near the edge of the forest so that they can find us when this is all over."  
  
Everyone nodded solemnly as they realized this wasn't something to argue about. They all headed to the forest and stood there, wands out in case something or someone came towards them.  
  
"Not hiding in the forest like the rest of them?" a voice drawled from Harry's right, an amused tone to it. "Can't say I'm surprised, knowing all of you like I do, though I'd think you'd be at least a bit further in."  
  
"Some of us know how to fight if we need to, Draco, so we're staying near the edge in case they come near here," Harry told his blond friend as he came into view, stepping out of the shadows.  
  
"Has your Gryffindor side come out again, Potter?" Draco asked, his use of Harry's surname showing that he was truly perplexed as it only happened when he was thinking too hard about something else.  
  
"Maybe a little, or maybe I'm just too curious for my own good and knew you'd be hanging out around here and wanted to know if your father is among those people out there, _enjoying_ themselves," Harry replied, turning back to the campsite and watching the chaos.  
  
"And there's my real answer," Draco said with a laugh.  
  
"Is he?" Tracey asked Draco quietly. Harry knew that she understood he was looking for the adults and wanted someone else to take over talking with Draco.  
  
"If they are, I wouldn't go telling all of you, would I?" Draco asked, but they all knew that he was saying in his own way that they were there.  
  
"'Course you would," Blaise said. "You allied with Harry, remember?"  
  
"Besides, do you really need to keep the act up right now, Draco? Your father is out there with a mask on and not behind you listening to this whole conversation," Daphne added, and Harry turned to see that she had an eyebrow raised.  
  
"True," Draco sighed, and Harry watched as he relaxed from his Pureblood arrogance into a more normal teenager. "I've been keeping up that look for too long, and being in the Top Box with a bunch of important people as well as the Weasleys didn't help matters."  
  
"Understandable," Hermione said. "Sometimes it's hard to remember when you're among friends and when you're among just allies or your father."  
  
"Theo is so lucky he doesn't have to act around his father like I do; his father's given up on him," Draco said before sighing deeply. "Oh well, at least it isn't all the time."  
  
"That's only because I showed you a second path and you took it, remember?" Harry reminded Draco. "If I hadn't, you'd still be acting like a Pure-blood and would probably find this," he gestured out to the campsite, "amusing."  
  
"Most of us would," Maya said softly for all of the Pure-bloods of the group except Neville.  
  
"Well, I've got a question, if we're done talking about Pure-bloods and all," Natalie said when no one said anything. "What are those guys and why are they doing that to the Muggles?"  
  
"They're Death Eaters, followers of the Dark Lord," Astoria told the to-be-first-year, also informing Harry about something he hadn't known.  
  
"Death Eaters are known for torturing and murdering Muggles more than wizards, yet they killed Muggle-borns and Half-Bloods as well," Maya finished, looking down sadly at her brother's friend. "I really wish none of us had to see this, especially you two."  
  
Before anyone could say anything to that, a green light flashed into the sky high above the trees deeper into the forest. Slowly, it began to form a shape. It became a large green skull with a serpent for a tongue that seemed to be made of green stars, and it rose higher and higher until everyone could see it.  
  
Turning quickly, Harry watched as the Death Eaters all Disapparated quickly, the Muggles falling and barely being stopped in time by the Ministry workers and other helpers.  
  
"The Dark Mark," Draco muttered darkly, and Harry turned to see that he was still staring at the skull in the sky, an unreadable expression on his face.  
  
"What _is_ that?" Harry asked his friends, seeing that most of them recognized the skull.  
  
"It's the Dark Mark, Harry," Tracey told him quietly, " _his_ mark."  
  
That made Harry look up at the skull with a whole new view of it. If that skull was Voldemort's mark, then that could only mean trouble. He knew that just a mark wouldn't scare his friends as much as that skull was, which meant it had a meaning to it that he didn't know just yet.  
  
"Harry, that mark was only used when someone died," Tracey whispered into his ear, obviously recognizing the confusion on his face. "Imagine going home and finding that mark floating above your home and knowing you were coming home to something terrible. That one skull caused so much fear in the first war with Voldemort that seeing it now… it's no wonder the Death Eaters ran."  
  
Now Harry understood. Something as terrible as meaning a death had occurred… Anyone would be scared out of his or her mind.  
  
Harry was just worried about the fact that someone could have died in the forest because of that sign. It didn't help that the fact the Dark Mark was being used for the first time in years — probably thirteen, if it hadn't been used since Voldemort had "died" — probably meant that his dream was true and he would be having problems this year. That could be a problem.

…

"Sirius!" Harry called as he spotted his godfather looking around the edge of the forest.  
  
"Harry!" he replied, rushing over to where all of them where waiting, though Draco had disappeared from the group not long after the Dark Mark had appeared. "Are you all okay? Is anyone hurt?"  
  
"We're all fine, Padfoot; we're all just fine," Harry assured the worried Marauder. "Everyone is here and accounted for. All we did was stay here and watch the chaos as if it was a movie."  
  
"Come on, you lot, we're going back to the tent and heading home now instead of in the morning," Sirius finally said when he was satisfied that all of them were in one piece and without a scratch on them.  
  
Harry turned and looked at the emerald green skull still floating above the forest for a few more moments before turning and following his godfather back to the tent.

…

_Ginny: Harry! Ron got accused of setting the Mark off along with Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan!  
  
Harry: No way! How did that happen?  
  
Fred: He was right by where the Mark was launched from, and he had lost his wand earlier on, but he doesn't know when.  
  
George: The Ministry officials attacked the three of them, dad says.  
  
Tracey: Is he okay?  
  
Ginny: Just a bit shaken right now; he'll be fine. He'd talk on the Journals but he doesn't get how to use them very well and dad is watching him more than the three of us, since we're usually writing in these things at odd times.  
  
Daphne: Tell Ron not to use the Journal in front of anyone who doesn't know about them.  
  
Ginny: *Blinks* Why?  
  
Blaise: Because if they don't know he's actually friends with us instead of just allies, we might be able to use him at a later date.  
  
Fred: What are you lot talking about?  
  
Harry: If Voldemort comes back soon, who will your parents go to?  
  
Weasleys: Dumbledore.  
  
Harry: If you're stuck with Dumbledore and he's trying to get to me, who would he not trust if I was near you or talking with you?  
  
Ginny: Oh… You guys are saying to use him as a back-up plan just in case.  
  
Maya: *Shrugs* It's not a bad idea.  
  
Fred: You all are such Slytherins…  
  
George: Thinking ahead like this and all…  
  
Both: It's amazing!  
  
Slytherins: *Laugh*  
  
Harry: Thanks guys. Please, let him know that he can talk with us, just not where anyone without a Journal can see him except in classes. Basically, he can't use them often during the summer, just in case.  
  
Ginny: I'll let him know later on._  
  
"Guys, put the Journals away please, we've gotta get going," Sirius told the kids sharply as they all sat around the dining table, writing. They were all ready to go and had sat down to write with the Weasleys for a bit, but now Sirius was done and making it seem like it hadn't been him who had been holding them up.  
  
"Sirius, you were the slow one, so be quiet," Harry told him with a bit of annoyance seeping into his voice. "We'll be there in a minute." Sirius glared at his godson for a moment before turning on his heel and storming out of the room.  
  
_Tracey: I'm sure you all saw that.  
  
Ginny: Go. Talk to us when you get home. Actually, dad wants us to go to bed now, so we'll let you know when we get home.  
  
Harry: Talk to you three later._

…

Harry watched his friends all leave Grimmauld Place with their parents before slumping into a seat at the table in the kitchen, tired yet full of energy at the same time. He knew he wouldn't be getting to sleep any time soon.  
  
"Are you okay?" Remus asked him quietly as Sirius left the kitchen to go to bed.  
  
"Yeah," Harry said. "It's just… hard. Staying on the edge of the forest was easy, yet I was fighting against my instinct to get out of the way all the same. It was as if two sides of me were fighting for control of me."  
  
"They probably were, Harry," Remus said as he took a seat beside him. "You've said it yourself that you've got the heart of a Gryffindor somewhere inside of you, and it was probably fighting with the Slytherin in you. This probably won't be the last time you have an internal fight with your two most prominent sides for control in moments like this. You'll just have to decide which side to let take the reigns while the other takes a backseat and helps while it can."  
  
"You're basically saying I'm going to have to decide whether or not to let the Gryffindor in me push me to fight instead of thinking first sometime in the future, right?" Harry asked to clarify.  
  
"That's a nice summary of it," Remus told him with a half-smile. "Now, what else is bothering you?" Remus asked, suddenly serious again.  
  
"That obvious right now?" Harry asked wryly, knowing that the reason was his exhaustion and the fact that he needed to raise his Occlumency shields back up. "The Dark Mark and the Death Eaters," he said after sighing deeply.  
  
"What about them?" Remus asked, looking curious, and Harry thought he might just want his opinion on them both.  
  
"The Death Eaters were there to have fun and just bring out a bit of fear," Harry began, speaking slowly as he sorted out his thoughts. "They just wanted to remind people that they were still out there and would still bring about fear and cause chaos. It wasn't anything more than a gathering of old friends having a laugh.  
  
"The thing is… the Dark Mark didn't seem to be from their group. They all saw the Mark and fled right away, as if they were afraid of it. There must have been another Death Eater there, working solo. Everything about it just says someone wanting to really cause fear and really bring about trouble."  
  
Harry looked up at Remus and saw that his face was thoughtful, but there was an edge to it that told Harry he had gotten most of that for himself already and was just thinking it over again. He didn't mind as he wanted Moony's opinion just as much as the Marauder wanted his opinion.  
  
"That's what I had gathered from watching everything that happened," Remus finally admitted. "You said it a bit differently than I would have, but the basic idea is the same."  
  
"So we _should_ be worried by my dream," Harry mused. "Got it."  
  
"These things might be connected, so we should remember it," Remus agreed. "Don't worry too much about it, but don't forget about it. Now, you should try going to bed. If you really can't sleep, go run around on four legs again in the attic to waste some energy."  
  
Harry smiled at the reference to his wolf form before transforming and running up the stairs to his room, Remus laughing after him. He loved doing that with his wolf form, so he did it at random times just to make Remus and Sirius laugh.  
  
Turning back into a human, Harry stripped off his weapons and changed back into his pajamas before slipping back into bed, his Journal under his pillow.  
  
He had thought it would take a while to fall asleep, but moments after closing his eyes, Harry was drifting off.


	8. Chapter Eight

"So…" Sirius drawled about a week after the Quidditch World Cup as he and Harry sat in the living room. Harry was reading one of his parents' journals while Sirius read the newspaper.

"What, Sirius?" Harry asked, a bit annoyed as this was the fifth time his godfather had done this in as many minutes.  
  
"Well, you know there's a ball at Hogwarts this year," Sirius began slowly.  
  
"Yes…" Harry said, seeing where this was going and not liking it very much.  
  
"And it's always the guys who ask the girls…" Sirius continued, still talking slowly.  
  
"Just get on with your point, Sirius; I know all of this," Harry snapped as he closed his mother's Potions journal and placed it next to him on the couch. He glared at his godfather.  
  
"I'm just wondering if you have any ideas who you're planning on taking," Sirius said as he waggled his eyebrows suggestively.  
  
"When is this bloody ball again?" Harry groaned as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the couch.  
  
"Christmas, and it's called the Yule Ball," Sirius informed him, obviously amused by his reaction.  
  
Harry almost raised an eyebrow at that, but managed to hold in his initial reaction so that he could think about his response. He knew in his mind that Sirius and his friends were all going to annoy him and Ginny about the ball as everyone seemed to think they'd end up together. It relieved him that they hadn't told anyone about Christmas of his third year as that would have given them more ammunition for their thoughts.  
  
"I guess I'll have to keep my eyes open for a girl, then," Harry told his godfather with a smirk as he finally opened his eyes.  
  
"No one in mind for a date, then?" Sirius asked, barely holding in his disappointment at Harry's reply, which just made Harry want to laugh.  
  
"Not a one," he said with a straight face that was completely neutral, giving nothing away, yet it didn't make Sirius suspicious.  
  
Harry could have sworn he heard Sirius mutter under his breath, "And here I thought he'd gotten a clue."  
  
_If only he knew,_ Harry thought with an internal smirk as he opened his Mum's journal and finding his page quickly, began reading through it again.

…

Harry opened his Journal and held his finger on the leftmost flap, thinking about wanting to only talk to Ginny and have no one see him. The Journal activated and a private conversation with Ginny was open, and no one knew he was online.  
  
Luckily, Ginny was on and no one was with him in his room. If anyone had been with him as he did this, they would have been commenting immediately about the fact that he was signed on without being signed on. With Ginny on, he wouldn't have to make her Journal heat up.  
  
_Harry: Ginny, can you end the conversation you're in and let me talk to you for a bit?  
  
Ginny: Sure, just give me a minute._  
  
Harry watched as she made her excuses and supposedly signed off of her Journal, though Harry knew better.  
  
_Ginny: What's going on?  
  
Harry: I thought I should warn you about something that affects both of us.  
  
Ginny: *Raises an eyebrow* Oh? Go on, you've got my attention now.  
  
Harry: *Snorts* I thought that would work. Anyway, Sirius cornered me in the living room a couple of hours ago.  
  
Ginny: And this involves me… how?  
  
Harry: I was getting there! Sirius brought up the Yule Ball, which is a ball being held at Christmas at Hogwarts this year because of the Triwizard Tournament.  
  
Ginny: The what Tournament?  
  
Harry: Triwizard Tournament. Draco told me that it involves three schools with a champion from each competing in three tasks. Anyway, Sirius was asking me if I had any idea of who I was planning on taking.  
  
Ginny: Okay, so this is beginning to involve me, but continue.  
  
Harry: You know as well as I do that everyone thinks we should be together. They're going to be pushing us both until Christmas, trying to get us to go to the Ball together.  
  
Ginny: *Groans* The twins AND Slytherins… This is going to be unbearable.  
  
Harry: You're telling me…  
  
Ginny: I'm curious, though; who are you planning on asking?  
  
Harry: I'll tell you only if you promise to help me pull the ultimate prank on those gits for what we both know they're going to do this year.  
  
Ginny: Deal. Tell me, now.  
  
Harry: I'd rather be able to do this in person, but… Journals are good enough. Ginny, I know it's months away, but will you go to the Yule Ball with me?  
  
Ginny: *Shocked* You're asking ME?  
  
Harry: Well… yeah. You're my friend, which means we can have a good time. Plus, if I'm being truthful, it'll be Christmas the day of the Ball, exactly a year after the deal.  
  
Ginny: So you're only asking me because of that…?  
  
Harry: NO! I'm asking because you're my friend, and not in the same way the others are. You and Tracey are the two closest to me, the two who understand me. Tracey is basically my twin, but you… you're something else, Gin. I don't know how to describe it, but I don't think there will be anyone else I'd rather ask.  
  
Ginny: I'm… touched, really touched, Harry. Yes, I'll go with you to the Ball.  
  
Harry: Excellent! Now, onto that prank…  
  
Ginny: Ah yes, what do you have planned this time?  
  
Harry: Do they really have to know that we're going to the Ball together? Why don't we keep it a secret until near the Ball, if not until the night of it? Torture them by thinking we're so oblivious that we can't take a hint, and then they realize the reason we haven't asked anyone out is because we've already agreed to go together.  
  
Ginny: *Snickers* Do you know how much they're going to talk about us and be annoyed by this?  
  
Harry: That's the point, Gin. *Laughs*  
  
Ginny: I'm in.  
  
Harry: Good, because it wouldn't work without you._

…

"Sirius, I'm packing in here and I don't need you to mess me up!" Harry told his godfather as the Marauder walked into his bedroom with his hands in his pockets, a smile on his face, and a glint in his eyes that frightened Harry ever-so-slightly.  
  
"I'm not in here to mess up your packing," Sirius said. "Though that's only because Moony threatened me good," he muttered under his breath darkly, probably forgetting Harry's heightened senses from being an Animagus.  
  
"What are you in here for, then?" Harry asked, deciding to ignore the last comment except to thank Moony later for stopping Sirius.  
  
"My job as your godfather," Sirius said as he pulled out Harry's desk chair and sat down on it backwards, looking his godson in the eyes with his own gray ones.  
  
"I thought you were already doing your job as my godfather," Harry said, slightly confused, as he gestured around the room as if to remind his godfather that he had provided Harry with a house.  
  
"I would have done that even if you weren't my godson," Sirius informed Harry with a smile. "No, I mean the job about how you're off to Hogwarts, we fear that Voldemort may be after you, and we all need to be careful."  
  
"Oh, that job," Harry said in a monotone as he went back to sorting through his books and organizing them as he placed them into the dragonhide bag made specifically for books, though he put his textbooks in his schoolbag instead.  
  
He didn't really like to think about that all that much if he could help it, not with it being the last day of summer. Tomorrow was September 1st, and he was going back to Hogwarts on the Hogwarts Express with his friends, leaving his home behind.  
  
"Yes, that job," Sirius stated matter-of-factly. "I've found the perfect solution to our problems. Finally managed to dig them up from a box in my closet."  
  
Harry turned to see Sirius was holding out a small, square mirror to him. He took it and looked between it and his godfather in confusion.  
  
"They're two-way mirrors," Sirius said as he laughed, and Harry knew it was because of the look on his face as he tried to figure out what the mirrors were. "Your father and I used to use them when we were in separate detentions."  
  
"How do I use it?" Harry asked, figuring out quickly how useful something like this could be if there was ever a problem; he wouldn't have to wait for an owl to fly to his home to find Sirius.  
  
"Just say my name and I'll feel mine heat up. It'll always be on my person, sort of like you and those Journals of yours." Sirius winked at Harry, and Harry smiled. "I won't call you except at night, so at least keep it on your bedside table at night, okay?"  
  
Harry nodded and slid the mirror into his school bag.  
  
"Thanks Padfoot," Harry said as he went over and hugged his godfather, truly appreciating the mirror and what it stood for.

…

"Have fun, be good but not too good, keep practicing, and don't hurt anyone, okay?" Sirius told Harry as they stood outside the train, hugging and saying goodbye.  
  
"I promise not to do anything more than maybe prank a little," Harry said with a smile as he pulled away from his godfather.  
  
"That's my godson," Sirius said with his own smile as he ruffled Harry's hair. Harry pulled away quickly and rushed to Remus, who hugged him from behind instead of waiting for Harry to turn around.  
  
"Have a good year, and enjoy the Tournament, but don't enter please," Remus told Harry, and Harry nodded.  
  
"I don't think I want another chance for me to die," he said quietly, and he knew Remus and Sirius understood he was thinking about the small events of his first three years, even if the only time he had come close to death was his second year with Sebae, not that they knew she was alive still.  
  
Harry waved goodbye as he got onto the train and headed back to the compartment he had already left his stuff in, Ankh licking Harry's neck with his forked tongue. He flicked the snake lightly on the head to make him stop, and Ankh laughed a snake's laugh, making Harry shake his head sadly.  
  
When Harry got to the compartment, he saw that Theo had come and left as the compartment was larger again. Ginny, the twins, Hermione, Tracey, Susan, Hannah, Terry, Luna, Maya, Graham, and Natalie were all in the compartment already.  
  
"Hey guys," Harry said as he sat down in his customary seat between Ginny and Tracey. "Good last few days of summer after the Cup?"  
  
They had all agreed to not train for the last week of summer as they all needed time to pack. Plus, some had to spend time with their parents before leaving so that it didn't feel like they had abandoned them for the summer.  
  
"Father couldn't care less what I did, so I spent a lot of it at Tracey's to get away from him," Theo said. It wasn't really news to Harry as he had spent time with both Theo and Tracey over the last week or so, but most of the group hadn't known about it.  
  
"Mum was worried about us because of the paper, so she wouldn't even let us out of the house for three days after the Cup," Ginny groaned, and the twins had annoyed faces. "When she finally did we couldn't go flying or leave where she could see us, which meant either hanging out in our rooms or do lots of chores for the week."  
  
"I'm really sorry to ask this," Blaise said from the doorway, where he must have been listening to Ginny from, "but is your mother a Gryffindor or not?"  
  
"That's what we wanted to know," Fred muttered as George nodded and Ginny made a face.  
  
"Are you sure we can't tell Mum about the training we've been doing?" George asked Harry, and Harry nodded.  
  
Unfortunately for most of his friends, they couldn't tell their parents what they were doing at his house and Tracey's. Some of their parents wouldn't allow them to come back if they knew, while others would worry too much, and some just wouldn't understand why they were doing it. It wasn't easy on them, nor was it fair, but they all understood why it was done.  
  
In fact, some like Neville and the Weasleys had it even worse. Because their families would probably go to Dumbledore when Voldemort came about, they couldn't let their family have even a thought about them training, as it would mean Dumbledore would know about it.  
  
Most in the group didn't understand Harry's worry about Dumbledore, but they also didn't know about the Prophecy, which Harry knew had been given to Dumbledore by someone, a seer. It all led up to Dumbledore keeping information from Harry that he should already have, even if he was young.  
  
"Sorry guys, but you know the reasons behind it," Harry told them sadly, and all three Weasleys nodded.  
  
Maya, Graham, and Natalie weren't confused by their talk anymore as they had filled them in on their training after the Cup, though none of them had done any. It had been agreed that they could join in after school started, so Harry had already gotten them the supplies they would need.  
  
"Harry," Tracey whispered quietly, gesturing towards Maya, and Harry remembered their gift for her.  
  
Draco, Astoria, Daphne, Justin, Padma, and Neville had all followed Blaise in just before the train began to move, so everyone was there that needed to be there for this.  
  
"Hey guys, Tracey and I have something we need to give Maya," Harry told the group, quieting all the smaller conversations as everyone turned to look. No one but he and Tracey knew about this, so they were all a bit surprised.  
  
"Harry and I have thought about this since the Cup almost two weeks ago, and we've decided to go through with our idea," Tracey said as Harry dug through his school bag and grabbed the thing he was looking for, keeping his hand in his bag.  
  
"None of you but Ginny knows this, but Tracey and I have been learning how to make Journals on our own," Harry continued. "We can add and remove things to them, and we can also make them from scratch. When we thought about how Maya is as much a part of this group as everyone else is, we decided it was our turn to try making a Journal, so we did."  
  
Harry pulled out Maya's new Journal, and every looked at it. This Journal was a green that looked almost metallic, and it already had the silver lining on it. Turning it around, they could all see Maya's name on the back.  
  
"Maya, if you accept this, your black Journal will return to an unused Journal with no name on it, and you'll be officially part of this group," Harry said as he held out the Journal to her with both of his hands.  
  
"Then I accept," she stated while looking Harry right in the eyes, her light green eyes shining with so many emotions that Harry couldn't really read them. Maya then reached out with both hands and took the Journal from Harry, smiling.  
  
"You two will get colored Journals of your own once you've been Sorted and we put the finishing touches on them," Harry heard Tracey whispering to Graham and Natalie, and when he turned he saw that they were looking at Maya with expressions of awe, sadness, and jealousy.  
  
"She's right, you know," Harry told them both with a smile as he sat down again, barely even remembering standing up to give Maya the Journal. "We're almost finished with yours, but Maya's was the priority for us as you both haven't even been Sorted yet."  
  
The two kids smiled up at them both, and Harry and Tracey shared a look as they turned away. They knew that the only reason their Journals weren't done was because both had reason to believe those two would be leaders for their year, so they knew they would have to add the lining to them.  
  
"What else can you do besides make Journals?" Hermione asked, and Harry realized that much of the group was curious about it.  
  
"Lots," Harry said as he shared a smile with both girls on either side of him. Tracey and Ginny were the only other two to know about what they had added to their three Journals.  
  
"Like what?" Daphne demanded.  
  
"You'll just have to wait and see when we decide to tell you," Ginny said with a laugh.  
  
"Wait, Ginny knows?" Fred said.  
  
"And you didn't tell us?" George whined in fake despair.  
  
"She helped us look up the charms, but she doesn't know how to make the Journals at all," Harry said with an amused smile. "And don't bother asking her as she's just as stubborn as Tracey and I are, and she wants to keep it a secret just as much as we do."  
  
"Darn," Blaise muttered quietly.  
  
"He's good," Draco agreed quietly, and Harry had to hold in a snort as he knew they hadn't meant for him to overhear that.  
  
"Does anyone think the Sorting Hat's song is actually going to make sense this year?" Hermione asked to start up another conversation, and Harry again had to hold in a snort. He could feel Ginny and Tracey also fighting back laughs beside him, so he put a hand on each of their arms, trying to remind them to keep it to themselves.  
  
"Hermione, the song last year did make sense afterwards," Harry said with a raised eyebrow.  
  
"It did?" a bunch of people asked, and Harry rolled his eyes.  
  
" _The important story has been heard/The story has been believed/If the story could be told/I would be very relieved_ ," he quoted word-for-word. "The Bloody Baron told us all a story not long after the Sorting, remember? Then the next line said something about the story changing things, and it sure did affect the school a lot those first few weeks after Baron told the story."  
  
"I — I didn't even think of that at the time," Hermione admitted as everyone else looked at Harry with surprise and a bit of awe.  
  
"You were spending too much time concentrating on the story to remember that the Sorting Hat had sung about it," he said in amusement and with a smile, and Hermione blushed.  
  
"Still, the song from out second year didn't make sense," Padma said, coming to Hermione's rescue.  
  
"Padma, the song in our second year mentioned the story then as well," Daphne said, saving Harry from seeming to know too much. "I remember that song well because it was one of the oddest I had ever heard. Plus, Harry wrote it down that night and I saw the paper with the song on it and memorized it."  
  
"I thought it would be interesting to figure the songs out," Harry said with a shrug as everyone turned to look at him. "I've written all three of them down, and I'll write this one down as well."  
  
"The only thing that hasn't ever made any real sense is the part about the Chosen Heir," Hannah finally said to break the silence.  
  
"That's true," Susan agreed. "The story makes sense now that we think about it and realize it must have been the Baron' story, but we haven't seen or heard anything about a Chosen Heir."  
  
"Has anyone figured that part out?" Draco asked, and most shook their heads, Harry, Ginny, and Tracey among them as they didn't want anyone to figure it out until Harry chose to tell.  
  
"Well, I looked around the library a bit," Hermione began slowly, and Harry rolled his eyes; Hermione was _always_ in the library, looking around the library, and reading books from the library; she could probably live there. "The best guess I could make using what I read is that maybe a Chosen Heir is someone who was chosen to be the heir of a founder instead of their own blood heir, though I'm not sure how that would be possible or which founder."  
  
Internally, Harry was cursing quite loudly, even if he was keeping a carefully blank face externally. Of course she would be the one to guess and figure it out pretty much, he thought darkly. Only Hermione would think like that and figure it out without any real basis for her thoughts.  
  
"Where did you come up with that?" Padma asked, sounding surprised but also intrigued by the idea.  
  
_Bloody hell, I'm doomed at this rate_ , Harry thought. He knew he would never tell them if they guessed it, but it still wasn't looking very good for him.  
  
"In one of the books I read about the founders, it was mentioned that most of the founders were worried about both their born and unborn heirs and how they would act in the future," Hermione said. "It made me think that maybe one of the founders found a way to choose an heir without him being a blood heir."  
  
_Close, but not right this time, Hermione,_ Harry thought with a little bit of relief in his mental voice.  
  
"Which founder could have made that happen, though?" Graham asked curiously.  
  
"Ravenclaw," Padma, Terry, and Hermione all said at once, and most of the compartment seemed to agree with them.  
  
"Oh, I thought it would be Salazar," Luna said, speaking up for the first time and sounding a bit disappointed. "But I guess you're right and it would be Rowena as Salazar must have been surrounded by Wrackspurts to have acted the way he did."  
  
Harry had to hold in a snort as he realized Luna was probably right and something must have been up with Salazar Slytherin the day he left Hogwarts to make him say what he had.  
  
Unfortunately, Luna's remark had made many people realize that Slytherin could have also possibly done it, which made Harry begin to worry again while mentally cursing Luna a bit.  
  
"Who could the Chosen Heir be, though?" Neville finally asked to get them away from the topic of Founders. While Harry was relieved to be away from it, the new topic was even worse for him.  
  
" _That is a good question_ ," Hermione admitted, "and one we should probably think about."  
  
"Is it possible he's in our year?" Justin asked, and everyone looked at him, a bit surprised. "Well, the Sorting Hat only mentioned him the year after we had all been Sorted, so I thought it might be possible that he's in our year as the Hat hadn't mentioned him sooner than that, which he probably would have if he had gotten there earlier."  
  
_Damn, they're good_ , Harry thought, and he felt Ginny and Tracey each place a hand on his arms this time, trying to keep him from giving himself away.  
  
"That's good reasoning," Daphne said. "What do you think, Harry?"  
  
" _Harry, talk to Ankh in Parseltongue and use it as an excuse_ ," Ginny told him in a quiet hiss, and Harry in turn began hissing.  
  
" _This is going to be really bad, Ankh, if I don't figure something out. They're figuring out about what Salazar did and that I'm his Chosen Heir. Before too long they'll know about the Dagger."  
  
"Just keep calm and don't let anyone know anything that they can't figure out, Harry,_ " Ankh advised.  
  
"Harry?" Daphne repeated, and he looked up, actually a bit surprised as he had gotten into the conversation with Ankh a bit too much.  
  
"Huh? Oh, sorry, Ankh started talking with me and I lost track of the conversation," he said, and he could almost feel Ginny's amusement beside him.  
  
"Justin brought up the idea that the Chosen Heir is in our year," Daphne said, trying to fill him in on stuff that he had actually heard. "We were wondering what you thought about it."  
  
"Well, that sounds like it's possible, but there are a few things to think about. The first is that we'd all probably realize it if one of the people in our Journal group, let alone our own year, had something happen to them that made them the Chosen Heir. Also, it's quite possible that it's an older student and the Sorting Hat just decided to wait a year or two to throw everyone off of the trail of who he is."  
  
Harry smiled as he realized that they were all listening to him and believing him. That took a load of worry off of him as it meant that, while they would probably keep their own year in mind, they might just be looking towards the older boys instead. Ankh had been right, he thought, as keeping his calm had made it easier to answer their question logically while also turning them away from him quite a bit.  
  
" _Nicely done,_ " Ginny complimented him, and Harry could tell by the squeezing of his arm that Tracey was saying the same thing silently.  
  
" _Thanks,_ " he hissed back, using his other hand and placing it on top of Tracey's so that she knew he was thanking her.  
  
Harry realized that this was going to be a long train ride of conversations about the Chosen Heir, and mostly likely the Triwizard Tournament later.  
  
" _This is going to be a long train ride_ ," he hissed, and Ginny laughed at him in Parseltongue while agreeing with him. _  
_


	9. Chapter Nine

Harry sat down at the Slytherin table, which he knew would be gone in the morning. Looking around, he realized he and his friends had now claimed the middle of the table all the way to the end closest to the teacher's table. His year was the split that was half-and-half for being in the Journal group and being out of it, which translated to agreeing with his views and not agreeing with them.

"I'm starving," Blaise groaned as he looked at the plates in front of him, no food on them.  
  
"Don't start acting like Ron over in Gryffindor, now," Harry commented with a smirk as he looked over to see Ron making a face at his own plate.  
  
"That's even worse," Blaise groaned as he turned to see what Harry could already see. "Who would want to be like that Weasley? All of his siblings still at Hogwarts are better than he is."  
  
Blaise was exaggerating immensely because Harry had talked to all of the colored Journal people as well as Ron, and they had all agreed that he should be treated like another black Journal person because of the chance of Voldemort returning. Only Harry and Ron really knew most of what Harry was thinking when he requested the treatment, but they all understood that Harry had his reasons and ideas for the future.  
  
"I wonder what the Hat's going to tell you this year," Tracey whispered in Harry's ear, and he turned to show her with his eyes that he was wondering the same thing. She nodded slightly in acknowledgement.  
  
"Hey, there's no Defense teacher here yet," Theo said, and Harry looked up to see there was, indeed, an empty chair at the head table.  
  
"Interesting," Daphne murmured. "I wonder who Dumbledore found this year and if he'll be as good as Remus."  
  
"Probably not because no one can beat Moony, but that's just my opinion," Harry claimed.  
  
Just then the doors to the Great Hall opened. Professor McGonagall led the first years in, and Natalie and Graham waved to Maya, her friends, Harry, and the rest of those with colored Journals until they reached the stool upon which the Hat was sitting. The Hat began to sing moments after the Hall went quiet.  
  
" _I am an important hat,  
A hat that does the Sorting,  
For who else could look into your minds,  
And make a choice that is changing?  
I have Sorted all kinds of people,  
Including the famous Headmaster, and infamous Chosen Heir.  
He found a way for the story to be told,  
So now he can be as invisible as air.  
For those of you just eleven,  
You have no reason to fear,  
As whatever House you are put in,  
Will be willing to lend a listening ear.  
All of the Houses are uniting,  
That I know is a fact,  
So not much separation will occur  
When you put on me, the Sorting Hat.  
Uniting more than just the Houses  
Should be the school's new quest,  
For with new people at the school,  
Why not unite the rest?  
As for the Houses,  
There are four,  
And they will be a part of you,  
From now until forevermore.  
When looking at the bravest of the lot,  
There isn't that far to look, no,  
For the red and gold of Gryffindor  
Is their only place to go;  
Looking at the hard-working,  
There is only one home for them,  
As lovely the yellow and black of Hufflepuff  
Will always be a gem;  
Those who love to read and learn  
Will find home with one another  
With blue and bronze of Ravenclaw  
Being anything but a bother;  
The slyest and most ambitious  
Can find home in a moment  
Because emerald and silver of Slytherin  
Is home of the observant.  
Now come up here,  
Sit under me,  
Because I will look at you,  
And tell you where you should be._ "  
  
Everyone began to clap loudly at the song, and Harry and Tracey traded relieved looks.  
  
In Harry's mind, it was a relief just to know that he wouldn't really have to do anything this year as the Chosen Heir. It had been a bit lucky that he had thought of the idea of using the Bloody Baron last year. Anything more would have been harder.  
  
No, all Harry had to do was keep hidden this year.  
  
The instructions the Hat had given him had been for those with any sort of Journal in general. It wanted them to unite with the two other schools coming for the Tournament, Harry realized. He knew that with the idea in his mind, it would happen no matter what.  
  
Then Professor McGonagall began calling names up to be Sorted, and Harry paid attention when he heard the name Creevey, Denis, realizing that he must be the younger brother of Colin, which was reaffirmed when he saw the small boy wearing what appeared to be Hagrid's coat.  
  
"GRYFFINDOR!" the Sorting Hat called out and Dennis rushed over to sit next to his older brother happily.  
  
The Sorting went on, and as Harry had suspected, Graham joined his sister at Slytherin while Natalie went over to Gryffindor to sit next to Ginny, who had decided to sit with the second years to help out with finding the leader and calming down the Gryffindors.  
  
When the Sorting finally finished and the Hat was taken from the room, Professor Dumbledore stood and spoke.  
  
"I have only two words to say to you," he told them, his deep voice echoing around the Hall. "Tuck in."  
  
Food appeared on the table, and Harry helped himself to some beef and Yorkshire pudding. Pretty soon conversation began around the Hall, though quieter than it would be later on as students finished eating.  
  
"Any idea what the Sorting Hat was talking about?" Theo asked the group, though Harry knew they were mainly asking him.  
  
"The Triwizard Tournament," he stated. "Three schools compete, which means there will be two more schools here this year. That means we can make friends and allies with the students from them throughout the course of the year."  
  
"That's right," Daphne gasped. "I had forgotten all about that."  
  
"Lucky you," Harry muttered darkly, and even Tracey looked at him curiously. "Sirius and Remus suspect that my dream-vision might be connected to the Tournament, though it's only been mentioned in passing when I was in the room as a way to convince me not to enter," he said bitterly as an explanation. "Like I was even going to enter anyway…" he added harshly under his breath as he stabbed a piece of his meat with his fork fiercely.  
  
"They're just being careful, Harry," Tracey said softly, though he could tell that she was a bit horrified at the idea of him being in the Tournament and Voldemort having something to do with it, mainly because they all knew he was a Slytherin and that would be the perfect plan.  
  
"Though you have to admit, it's not a half-bad plan…" Theo said softly.  
  
"A plan worthy of a Slytherin," Harry agreed with a bitter tone, nodding to his friend. "It's the reason I didn't ever say anything to Sirius or Remus when they brought it up. It would have just worried them even more if they had realized it was probably something Voldemort would do, seeing as he's a Slytherin."  
  
Blaise whistled, going from loud to soft in amazement. "Blimey, Harry, everything seems to involve you in some way, doesn't it?"  
  
"You're telling me," Harry muttered darkly. "I saw the stuff with Snape, and we all figured out the Stone in first year. Second year I'm the Parselmouth in the school who realized the monster was a basilisk, and then I went after Ginny when she was taken into the Chamber of Secrets, killing it in the process to save her."  
  
It was hard for him to say the lie again, but he knew he had to keep the truth to himself so that no one would hurt Sebae, even though he knew his friends wouldn't. This just wasn't something that could get around. Besides, it would also give him the element of surprise if she was ever needed.  
  
"Last year Sirius was supposedly after me, and then Draco and I find Wormtail and bring him in after finding and talking to an accused-murderer who spent twelve years in a prison that could drive anyone mad. Oh, also throw in the Dementors. Hogwarts sure is safe for me."  
  
"When you say it like that, you make it sound so much more dangerous than it was," Daphne muttered.  
  
"Daphe, we all know how dangerous Hogwarts has been for Harry," Blaise snorted. "It'll be a relief if we could have one year where something isn't happening in this school, even if our first year was the tamest."  
  
"True," she sighed, and they all fell into an uncomfortable silence as they ate their dinner.  
  
"What schools do you think will be coming for the Tournament?" Tracey finally asked to break the silence.  
  
"I'd say Beauxbatons from France," Blaise said immediately, as if he had been thinking about it, which he might have been, Harry admitted silently. "It's one of the largest schools in Europe."  
  
"What's the other?" Harry asked curiously.  
  
"Durmstrang," Theo said darkly. "Father almost sent me there; it's a school that teaches the Dark Arts more than any other in Europe." It explained the darkness in his voice, Harry thought.  
  
"So Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hogwarts, each with a champion participating in the Triwizard Tournament…" Blaise mused. "This should be an interesting year. I wonder how the champions will be chosen."  
  
"I think we're going to find out," Harry said as the deserts disappeared and Dumbledore stood up.  
  
"So!" said Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices.  
  
"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."  
  
The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched. He continued, "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year.  
  
"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."  
  
Harry turned to look at Theo, Blaise, Draco, and Daphne as they all stared at each other and back up at Dumbledore before back at each other, speechless. Cancel Quidditch?  
  
"If the Tournament means this, I don't think I want it anymore," Harry muttered quietly, and the three friends on the team with him who could hear him nodded mutely.  
  
"This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy - but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts -"  
  
But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open. A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black traveling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swiveled toward the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling. He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark gray hair, then began to walk up toward the teachers' table.  
  
A dull clunk echoed through the Hall on his every other step. He reached the end of the top table, turned right, and limped heavily toward Dumbledore. Another flash of lightning crossed the ceiling. Tracey and Daphne gasped while Harry was barely able to hold his own in.  
  
The lightning had thrown the man's face into sharp relief, and it was a face unlike any Harry had ever seen. It looked as though it had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces are supposed to look like, and was none too skilled with a chisel. Every inch of skin seemed to be scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal gash, and a large chunk of the nose was missing. But it was the man's eyes that made him frightening.  
  
One of them was small, dark, and beady. The other was large, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue. The blue eye was moving ceaselessly, without blinking, and was rolling up, down, and from side to side, quite independently of the normal eye - and then it rolled right over, pointing into the back of the man's head, so that all they could see was whiteness.  
  
The stranger reached Dumbledore. He stretched out a hand that was as badly scarred as his face, and Dumbledore shook it, muttering words Harry was too far away to hear. He seemed to be making some inquiry of the stranger, who shook his head unsmilingly and replied in an undertone. Dumbledore nodded and gestured the man to the empty seat on his right-hand side.  
  
The stranger sat down, shook his mane of dark gray hair out of his face, pulled a plate of sausages toward him, raised it to what was left of his nose, and sniffed it. He then took a small knife out of his pocket, speared a sausage on the end of it, and began to eat. His normal eye was fixed upon the sausages, but the blue eye was still darting restlessly around in its socket, taking in the Hall and the students.  
  
"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."  
  
No one clapped for Moody, and Harry stopped looking at the new professor to look at his friends. Theo had a hard look on his face as he stared at his empty plate, purposely not looking at Moody. Blaise was looking sympathetically at him while Daphne had a hand on his shoulder. Tracey had reached over and grabbed one of his hands on top of the table.  
  
A bit further down, sitting with his other friends, Draco was a mixture of fear, shock, and anger as he looked up at Moody. From what Harry could gather, he was afraid of the new teacher, but he was also shocked he was here and angry about something he must have done.  
  
Harry didn't really know what the cause of these reactions was, but he knew they would tell him either later that night or in the morning.  
  
Dumbledore cleared his throat.  
  
"As I was saying," he said, smiling at the sea of students before him, all of whom were still gazing transfixed at Mad-Eye Moody, "we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."  
  
"You're JOKING!" Fred called out loudly from the Gryffindor table, effectively cutting through the tension brought on by Moody's arrival and making everyone laugh.  
  
"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said, "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar."  
  
Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.  
  
"Er - but maybe this is not the time… no…" said Dumbledore, "where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament… well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely.  
  
"The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities - until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."  
  
Harry wasn't very surprised by this as Sirius had given in and told him about the Tournament once he knew it was going to happen. It wasn't a good thing that people had died during the Tournament, but there wasn't anything that could be done except to stop it from happening again.  
  
"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which has been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger.  
  
"The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."  
  
Harry heard whispers around the Hall as a bunch of people began whispering to friends. His own friends were shaking their heads as they heard the Gryffindors saying they were going to enter the Tournament. None of them were going to even try entering as they knew it would be dangerous.  
  
"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," he said, "the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age — that is to say, seventeen years or older — will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration.  
  
"This" — Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words, and Harry saw from across the Hall that the Weasley twins were suddenly looking furious — "is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion." His light blue eyes twinkled as they flickered over Fred's and George's mutinous faces. "I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen.  
  
"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"  
  
Harry quickly stood up and hurried around the table with Tracey to meet the other three, Blaise and Daphne on either side of Theo, whose face was still hard. Draco made a few excuses to his friends and caught up to them just as they left the Hall, none of them speaking until they were in the dungeons and heading to the Common Room.  
  
"This might be rude, but I have to ask: What is up with you lot and Moody?" Harry finally asked, curious about the odd reactions from his friends. Tracey gave him a sympathetic look and answered for the group.  
  
"Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody is a retired Auror. He has problems with both Draco's father and Theo's," she said softly, looking at them sadly. "You know they were both Death Eaters, and well… Moody gave both of them really hard times. There's no lost love between Moody and their fathers."  
  
"Oh…" was all Harry could say in response, looking at his friends sadly. It would make classes very interesting as they would see how Moody would treat the children of some of them men he disliked — probably even hated.  
  
They got to the Common Room, and all of them went to their dorms without saying a word. Theo and Draco were in bad moods but trying to hide the fact as they unpacked, got ready for bed, and pulled their curtains around their beds, locking out Blaise and Harry for the night.  
  
Blaise made a face at Harry before nodding his good night and following suit, leaving Harry alone at his desk with his Journal open in front of him. Crabbe and Goyle were in the bathroom still, so he was the only one not in bed in the room.  
  
Harry tapped the left page of his Journal twice, and watched it open to a group he had rarely used as there wasn't much of a reason for him to use it. It was the part of the Journals that was for leaders only, and only their Journals would allow them to open it. Tracey and her father were the only two people not leaders who knew about it, even.  
  
_Harry: Please don't talk about the Tournament until we're done with our conversation, okay, guys?  
  
All: Sure. Got it. No problem, Harry.  
  
Harry: Okay, let's start with Maya and Astoria — the new Slytherin leader is…?  
  
Astoria: Who else could it be but our lovely Maya's younger brother Graham Pritchard?  
  
Maya: Oh, be quiet, Astoria. You're the one who said he was the only one who could be the leader in his year of Slytherin.  
  
Astoria: Doesn't mean I couldn't have fun while I said it.  
  
Harry: Enough, you two! Okay, Susan, Matthew, and Kyle — the Hufflepuff leader?  
  
Matthew: Laura Madley. A Half-blood.  
  
Kyle: Bloody hell is she harsh. Snapped at me when I asked very politely if she was a Pureblood or Half-blood because I could tell she wasn't Muggle-born by how much she knew about our world.  
  
Susan: *Giggles* It's quite true. He was super polite about it and she snapped at him until I told her that it was something we were asking everyone in first year. Once she knew that, she was as pleasant as could be and was able to help us talk to the others.  
  
Harry: *Raises an eyebrow* Nice. Terry, Padma, Bradley, Robert?  
  
Robert: Orla Quirke. A Pureblood.  
  
Padma: She has the mind of a Ravenclaw, but she definitely acts like a Hufflepuff.  
  
Susan: What does that mean? *Glares slightly*  
  
Terry: Calm down, Susan! It means that she's kind, fierce about what she believes in, gives everyone a chance, and listens before acting — sort of like a Hufflepuff would act.  
  
Bradley: She was also quite loyal to the idea once she understood what we were saying and the others began fighting against it. Thing is, she gave the others a logical reason why Slytherins should be given a chance, sort of like you did, Harry.  
  
Harry: Very interesting… Finally we come to Hermione, Ginny, and Demelza. *Mutters* Probably to tell me what I already knew.  
  
Ginny: *Huffs* Yes, you were right in your guess that Natalie MacDonald would be chosen for Gryffindor, Harry.  
  
Demelza: Bloody hell was she scary in defending Slytherins. It was like the others' words were a personal insult to her!  
  
Harry: They probably were, you know. For those of you who don't know Natalie, she's a Half-blood who is best friends with Graham and has been for years. Her parents are both Muggle-born, but Maya and Graham's parents don't know about it as of now.  
  
Maya: Natalie and her parents are good people who don't care about blood.  
  
Hermione: She's smart and can be observant, but she's more outgoing and active than Graham is, which would be why she was Sorted into Gryffindor while he was Sorted into Slytherin.  
  
Harry: Now that we have this established, I've got one more thing to say before you can all choose the topic of conversation.  
  
Ginny: Oh?  
  
Harry: A few of you know this, but most of you don't. This summer, Ron Weasley, Ginny and the twins' brother still in Hogwarts with us, finally came around. He now has a black Journal and is under Hermione for a leader. He's going to try to convince his friends to join, so it might just be Draco's lovely friends not in the group by the end of this year.  
  
Ginny: Can I_ please _prank him, Harry? He's been a brat and a git for so long…  
  
Harry: No, Ginny. All of you, be kind to him and don't treat him badly just because of his past actions. He's changed, so let him prove himself to you before you form an opinion of him now. Don't use any old opinions, please.  
  
Matthew: You expect us to treat him kindly after all he's done to us?  
  
Maya: *Glares* THIS is exactly what the Journals and what we believe in is all about! So what if Ron has been an idiot for years and made a point of showing it? He's changed, and we need to give him a second chance to prove himself to us! If you use his past actions from when he was eleven or twelve and trying to get over a lot of things, you're as bad as the people who fight because of House and/or blood. You might as well get rid of your Journal and find a new leader, because we need leaders who are willing to accept new people and show an example of it, not what you're doing.  
  
Harry: Maya… calm down.  
  
Maya: Calm down? Harry!  
  
Harry: Maya, I agree with you! Just calm down.  
  
Matthew: I'm sorry…  
  
Harry: Don't be, Matthew. Your reaction was normal and expected. Maya proved her point, though, and you all need to remember it. Treating people by their pasts or things they can't control isn't something we should do. It's why we've united like we have, why the Journals exist. Please, just remember this.  
  
All: Okay.  
  
Ginny: Now… The Triwizard Tournament!  
  
Astoria: It's going to be bloody amazing!  
  
Harry: *Snorts* It can be so hard to remember that you and Daphne are related with how much you curse and how little she does.  
  
Astoria: Just goes to show that siblings can be very different.  
  
Ginny: Oh, I know how true that is, but come on, the Tournament!  
  
Hermione: It's going to be so dangerous, though, Astoria… The death toll.  
  
Bradley: That's why they've got the rule that only students of age can participate, remember?  
  
Susan: Cedric was talking about entering as we headed to the Common Room…  
  
Demelza: Really? That's a bit of a surprise.  
  
Kyle: Not really, if you know him. He's really kind, but he also knows how to be active and all that.  
  
Matthew: He's really excited about the idea of entering, really.  
  
Ginny: *Snorts* So are the twins. They and Lee are driving everyone up the wall with their ideas of how Dumbledore will keep them out and their ideas of how to get past it all to enter. I personally think that they're just in it for the money.  
  
Maya: My friends and I just want to watch the whole thing. None of us were even thinking of entering.  
  
Hermione: Over half of Gryffindor wanted to enter before we heard the age limit… I still think it's crazy to enter the Tournament with the fact that people have died in it.  
  
Robert: What are you doing about it, Harry?  
  
Harry: Me? I'm going to sit this one out and watch. Maybe I can have a quiet year for once…  
  
Maya: Do you even know what a quiet year would be like?  
  
Harry: Something a bit quieter than my first year, maybe? *Shrugs*  
  
Ginny: You actually had a somewhat quiet year that year?  
  
Harry: Sure. I only had to deal with watching your brother and his two friends as they tried to figure out what Hagrid's three-headed dog was guarding on the third floor corridor so that I could warn the professors if I heard about anything bad about to happen.  
  
Padma: You call that quiet?  
  
Harry: Compared to my last two years? Yup.  
  
Kyle: I'm glad I'm not you, then…  
  
Harry: Same here, Kyle; same here. Well, you lot can talk about the Tournament some more. I'm going off to bed. 'Night all.  
  
All: Good night, Harry! 'Night, Harry! 'Night! Good night!_  
  
Harry shut his Journal before heading to bed, already in his nightclothes. Putting the Dagger and his Journal under his pillow along with his wand still on the holster on his arm, Harry went to sleep, still worried about what the year might hold for him after the dream, but not letting it get to him as he had a busy year ahead of him. _  
_


	10. Chapter Ten

"This talk of the Tournament is going to drive me up the wall soon," Harry groaned as he sat down at a table in the middle of the Great Hall for lunch after Ancient Runes the first day of classes. "It's as if there's nothing else going on in this world."

"Maybe it's because there isn't for most people," Ginny suggested as she gave him an amused look.  
  
"Right…" he muttered under his breath as he began making a sandwich. "Well, it's bloody annoying, that's what it is," he said louder for the others to hear.  
  
"That sort of thing is always annoying for you, Harry," Theo laughed, making Harry glare at his friend in annoyance.  
  
"Why are you so annoyed by all of this?" Tracey asked softly, and Harry relaxed a bit when he heard her calm voice, though it was obvious he was still annoyed.  
  
"Because it hasn't even started yet!" he exclaimed quietly, trying not to draw any attention to himself. "If the other schools were already here I would understand this better, but right now when it's just a normal school day? It's just plain annoying."  
  
"You should be used to people talking about annoying topics, seeing as they're almost always talking about _you_ , you know," Maya said as she slipped into a seat on the other side of the table from Harry. "Just ignore it and go on with your life like you do when they're talking about you."  
  
"True…" Harry admitted, and he saw the others giving Maya thankful glances for obviously stopping him from driving _them_ mad.  
  
"So, Theo and I have Arithmancy after lunch," Blaise began. "Are we still doing the same thing as last year — the two of us teaching the rest of you?"  
  
"I think we should," Daphne said, and Tracey and Harry nodded in agreement.  
  
"Great," Blaise concluded with a clap. "Theo, I took the notes in the last class last year, so it's your turn today."  
  
"Damn," Theo muttered as it was obvious Blaise was right.  
  
"Are you three even going to take Arithmancy after OWLs?" Ginny asked suddenly, and Daphne, Tracey, and Harry looked at her curiously before sharing looks.  
  
"Probably not, but it would be better to know we've at least got the background in it and can learn more because we've taken the OWL," Daphne said for the three, shrugging a bit.  
  
"If we do pretty well, maybe it'll make a difference in what we can get a job in," Tracey added.  
  
"I guess you do have a point," Ginny admitted. "But do you really expect to do well?"  
  
"We're expecting to pass, but Theo and Blaise will probably do better than us because they're actually in the class," Harry said, and the two mentioned smiled. "Though we'll probably beat them in Ancient Runes, which they're doing for the same reason the three of us are going to take the Arithmancy OWL."  
  
"Makes sense," Maya said from where she had been listening to the conversation.  
  
"Well, I think you all should get to class," Harry said. "Trace, Daphe, Draco, and I have Ancient Runes homework to work on, and lunch is almost over."  
  
Everyone said their goodbyes and went their own ways.

…

"I hear you're planning on entering the Tournament," Harry said as he unexpectedly sat next to Cedric at his table full of older Hufflepuffs, surprising the older boy.  
  
"Yeah, I am," Cedric said once he had gotten over the shock.  
  
"Good on you," Harry told his friend with a smile. "I wish you a lot of good luck if you're chosen. Just realize that Angelina's birthday is about a week before the other schools get here, so you might have some competition for the spot of Champion."  
  
"You're not going to try and enter?" one of Cedric's friends asked in surprise.  
  
"Why would I want to do that?" Harry asked, a bit shocked by the question, though he realized quickly that he shouldn't have been. "I'd love nothing more than to have a quiet year. Besides, it's a deadly Tournament, and I think I'd at least like to survive my time here at Hogwarts."  
  
"Oh…" the boy said. "It's just… well, entering seems like something you'd do…"  
  
Harry laughed before answering. "It sure seems like it with the trouble I get into, doesn't it? No, I'd rather sit this one out this year. I'll let Cedric here or Angelina over there get the glory." Harry slapped Cedric on the shoulder with one hand while gesturing in the direction of Angelina and her friends with the other.  
  
"Thanks for the vote of support, Harry," Cedric said with a smile and a bit of an amused laugh, and Harry returned the smile. "It's great to know you're behind me if I'm chosen for Champion."  
  
"Of course I am!" Harry said indignantly, insulted that Cedric would think he would do anything less. "I'd be behind anyone, even if they didn't have…" Harry trailed off, but Cedric nodded in understanding, though his friends were confused. "Though I'd rather it be you or Angelina because they are part of the group," he added with a smirk.  
  
"I can believe that," Cedric laughed.  
  
"I'd better go over to my friends," Harry sighed. "They're getting twitchy."  
  
Cedric looked up to see that Harry's closest friends were, indeed, looking at him constantly, something Harry had seen the whole time he had been sitting with Cedric.  
  
"I came over here to say I think it's brilliant that you're entering, but my friends have no idea what I'm doing here," Harry told Cedric, making all of the Hufflepuffs laugh at the innocent look on his face.  
  
"Go before they come charging over here, and thanks for the support," Cedric told Harry, and Harry nodded as he got up and headed to the others.

…

Ginny dragged Harry and Tracey outside on Sunday afternoon to relax, stating they needed a break from the pile of homework their professors had put on them in the single day of classes they had had so far. They were all sitting under a tree by the lake, Ankh and Bast with them. Hedwig was flying overhead.  
  
"How did she know to come out here?" Ginny asked, looking up at the snowy owl.  
  
"She knows me well," Harry said with a smile as he held out his arm for his owl. "Hagrid gave her to me on my eleventh birthday — she was my first gift."  
  
Harry saw Tracey and Ginny share sad looks, though he could tell they were happy that he didn't have to live with his relatives ever again.  
  
"You know," Harry mused aloud as he looked around and saw so many students outside enjoying the nice weather, "it's too bad we don't have somewhere inside for all of us just to hang out in during the winter or when it's raining. I mean, during autumn and spring it's fine as the weather is nice, but during winter or just those terrible days we're all stuck in either the library, classes, or our Common Rooms."  
  
"What can we do about it?" Tracey asked skeptically, and Harry knew his two friends were spotting the glint in his eyes that said he had an idea.  
  
"I've got a few ideas," Harry said with a smirk, and the two girls shared looks before leaning in closer to hear his ideas.

…

"Professor?" Ginny said as she walked up cautiously to Professor McGonagall after her class on Monday afternoon just before dinner.  
  
"Yes, Ms. Weasley?" the Transfiguration professor asked. "Is there something wrong?"  
  
"Nothing's wrong, per se," Ginny began, "but Harry, Tracey, and I had an idea that we wanted to talk to you and Professor Snape about before bringing it to the Headmaster, and we were wondering if we could talk to you both after dinner somewhere?"  
  
"I'm guessing Mr. Potter and Ms. Davis are speaking to their Head of House as we talk now?" McGonagall asked in amusement, and Ginny nodded a bit. "I'll speak to him and we'll tell you three where to meet us and when."  
  
"Thanks, Professor!" Ginny said happily before slipping out of the room to meet the other two outside of the Great Hall.

…

"Professor?" Harry asked as he and Tracey slipped into the Potions classroom just as the bell rang and Snape dismissed his OWL class of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. It had been a double Arithmancy class that afternoon, so they had spent most of it doing homework and deciding how to talk to their Head of House about this.  
  
"What is it Potter, Davis?" Snape snapped, and Harry could tell that it hadn't been a good class just now.  
  
"We were wondering if we could talk to you and Professor McGonagall about an idea we had along with Ginny Weasley that we're planning on telling the Headmaster about," Harry said.  
  
"It took a bit, but we decided we should bring it to our Heads of House to see if it was possible and to get help if it was possible," Tracey added.  
  
"I'll speak to Professor McGonagall at dinner, but this had better be worth it," Snape snarled, but Harry knew he wasn't angry at them and put a hand on Tracey's arm so that she knew it as well.  
  
"It's definitely worth it, Professor," Harry said quietly. "We have an idea of something we think Hogwarts should have that'll make it easier for the students to interact."  
  
Snape's head flew up sharply, and he looked at them with an unreadable face and hard eyes for a few moments before nodding once sharply. His features softened a bit, and Harry knew he had reminded his professor of his mother again.  
  
"Thank you, Professor," he said softly before turning Tracey around with him and leaving.  
  
"What was that about?" she asked as they headed up to the Great Hall to meet Ginny.  
  
"I reminded him of my mother again," he told her, and she nodded in understanding. It had taken him many weeks this summer, but he had finally told her about Snape and his mother being best friends when they were younger.  
  
"Come on, Ginny is probably going to be waiting for us," was all Tracey said, knowing that Harry had understood her silent message of understanding.

…

"My office, Severus?" Professor McGonagall asked the professor next to her quietly so as not to draw attention to it.  
  
"Seven," he agreed.

…

"What is this all about, you three?" McGonagall asked Harry, Tracey, and Ginny as they sat down across from their Heads of House.  
  
"We were outside yesterday and Harry brought up the idea that it's too bad the students don't have somewhere that we can all just hang out when it's too cold or wet outside," Ginny said. "Then he got an idea, and… I'll let him explain it."  
  
"Why can't we take an unused section of the school and turn it into and area for the students to hang out in?" Harry asked.  
  
"What do you mean by that, Potter?" Snape asked sharply, though Harry saw the wheels turning in his mind as his professor looked at him calculatingly.  
  
"Well, we could have a very large room with couches, tables, chairs, bookshelves of normal textbooks and novels, cabinets with games, snacks, and drinks. There could be some smaller rooms if people want to study in a quieter area because I know I've read about a charm that can dull the noise from another room but still make it audible just in case. Maybe some rooms for practicing charms specifically so that no one will be hurt as easily. You know… a place we could all hang out in."  
  
Professors Snape and McGonagall shared looks of surprise and curiosity, the idea definitely sounding interesting to them, Harry knew. If the looks on their faces were any indication, the three of them might just have gotten some help for their idea.  
  
"We also thought it could be used for when the other schools get here so that we can interact with one another," Tracey added, and Harry smiled as that had been her idea.  
  
"Do you have any ideas for a design?" Professor McGonagall finally asked as she and Snape shared another long look.  
  
Harry reached into his bag and pulled out a roll of parchment tied up with a small, green ribbon. He looked at Tracey and Ginny, received nods, and passed it over to the professors.  
  
They opened the scroll and looked it over, their eyes widening as Harry knew they were probably amazed by the detail the three of them had put into the ideas that had just kept on coming.  
  
"This is very detailed, you three," McGonagall said without looking up from it.  
  
"Ideas just kept coming, so we kept changing it," Harry said quietly. "This is actually the final draft of ten, fifteen?" He looked at the girls, who nodded.  
  
"It took a few hours yesterday," Ginny added, "but if we can actually have it, all that time will be worth it."  
  
"Is this possible, Professors?" Tracey asked softly.  
  
"It's very possible, Ms. Davis," Snape said as he looked up at them quickly before going back to studying their ideas. "In fact, this is one of the most thought out designs I've ever seen. We professors could make this design from this piece of parchment alone."  
  
"Though I'm curious about this room here between the restrooms," McGonagall said, finally making the comment all three of them were expecting as she looked up at them. "You haven't put anything there at all."  
  
"We were actually wondering if you could just leave that room to the three of us," Harry said. "The three of us know a bunch of charms we want to put on it."  
  
"Of course, and we'll leave you three to decorate the room with the furniture and other decorations," McGonagall agreed with a nod. "The training rooms, bookshelves, tables, food, drink, and games we can provide. You'll have to order and buy the books yourselves, but I believe you can cover that, Mr. Potter. Otherwise, I believe I even know the perfect section of the school to put all of this in."  
  
"Really?" all three of them asked as Snape looked up at McGonagall with a questioning look, and she nodded.  
  
"There's a section of the third floor — not the right hand side corridor you two are thinking of! —" she added sharply when Tracey and Harry shared looks — "that has been empty for centuries. If we rebuild that section of the castle, this idea of yours might just work."  
  
"Can it be done without anyone but the professors and the three of us knowing and no announcements being made until it's opened?" Harry asked quickly. This was something the three of them had worried about, as they wanted it to be a surprise.  
  
"A few glamour charms, silencing charms, and careful timing…" Snape said quietly to McGonagall, and she nodded at the three, making them relax in relief.  
  
"Do you have a specific time limit for all of this?" Snape asked suddenly, and the three shared a long look as they silently decided how long.  
  
"At least a week before the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang get here?" Ginny suggested aloud.  
  
"We could have this done within the month, if you want it," McGonagall said, and all three students looked up in surprise. They had thought it would take longer than that. "That is, if Professor Dumbledore agrees to it," she added, "which he probably will do willingly."  
  
"That's better than we could have hoped, Professor," Harry admitted with a smile. "If you can have it done by then, that would be amazing."  
  
Harry patted the pocket with his Journal in it, and he knew the girls had caught the movement and understood. If the area was ready by the end of the month, that meant they could use the room the three of them were going to charm to give the first years their Journals, seeing as they normally waited about a month anyway. It was the perfect way to show everyone the new rooms.  
  
"Very well," McGonagall said with a nod. "If you wish, Professor Snape and I would be willing to be in the room when you bring up the offer to the Headmaster."  
  
"That would be brilliant, Professor," Harry replied with a smile.

…

"A very interesting idea, Mr. Potter, Ms. Davis, Ms. Weasley," Professor Dumbledore said slowly, his eyes going between each of the students curiously. "This was all your idea?"  
  
"Yes, Professor," Harry said, and Tracey and Ginny nodded from their seats on either side of him.  
  
"Well, then," Dumbledore said with a smile slowly growing on his face, "I've only got one question for you. What are you going to do with this unlabeled room here?"  
  
Harry looked at the design that was flat on the Headmaster's desk and saw he was pointing to the room between the restrooms, just as McGonagall had been the day before.  
  
"We were planning on charming, designing, and working on that room ourselves," he admitted softly, looking straight into the blue eyes of his professor.  
  
A soft push on his Occlumency shields startled him, though Harry managed to hide it well as he realized what was going on. Hissing nonsense in Parseltongue, Harry gently forced the probe away from his mind as he looked away from the blue eyes staring into his green ones, knowing the Headmaster would think it was lack of eye contact that had ruined his search in Harry's mind. Luckily it had been a soft probe and not a full-scale attack with Legilimency, or Harry would cause many problems for Professor Dumbledore.  
  
"Will the professors be allowed into that room?" Dumbledore asked, and Snape and McGonagall gasped almost silently from their places by the wall to Harry's left.  
  
He glanced in their direction before sharing a look with Ginny and Tracey. Ginny nodded at the look in his eyes, and she spoke up.  
  
"We weren't planning on it, Professor," she stated, but she hurried on before anyone could say anything. "The students need at least one room that's for us alone, and we thought we could use that one for it."  
  
"Very true, Ms. Weasley, that is very true," Professor Dumbledore said, his eyes shining and a smile on his face. "Very well, I give permission for the professors and yourselves to build these rooms without anyone else knowing until you're ready to share them."  
  
"Thank you, Professor," Tracey said for the group as Harry and Ginny shared smiles.

…

"I was really worried there for a minute," Ginny said as they walked towards the library to do homework for their classes the next day.  
  
"Lucky you," Harry muttered darkly, and both Tracey and Ginny looked at him, surprised by his tone. "Dumbledore tried to use Legilimency on me."  
  
"He _what_?" Tracey exclaimed, and Harry nodded stiffly.  
  
"Tried to use Legilimency on me while I was looking him in the eye," he repeated, elaborating a bit. "Lucky we know Occlumency, eh?"  
  
"That's illegal, and he knows it!" Tracey growled.  
  
"Calm down, Trace," Harry said, putting a hand on her shoulder as he led both her and Ginny into an empty classroom so that they didn't draw attention to themselves. He put a silencing charm on the door so that no one could hear anything from outside the room.  
  
"How can I calm down when he was trying to read your thoughts?" she exclaimed.  
  
"Trace, it didn't work, and I don't even think he knows I know what he had been doing," Harry said calmly, and he felt her begin to relax a bit. "I made it look like he had lost contact when I pushed him out by looking away from his eyes as I did it. Besides, we've always known that there were reasons your father taught us Occlumency, and it wasn't just from Voldemort."  
  
"Now we know to be careful around Dumbledore, especially when looking him in the eye," Ginny added softly, her hand on Tracey's back.  
  
"He's not making it easy to like him, is he?" Tracey asked as she sighed and moved out of their reach to sit down on a desk.  
  
"No, he's really not," Harry agreed as he sat down on the desk next to her, Ginny on her other side. "In fact, it's a worry since we know Voldemort is planning to come back sometime in the near future."  
  
"How so?" Ginny asked, leaning around Tracey to look at Harry more clearly.  
  
"Dumbledore is seen as the leader of the light, but if he's like this all the time, it's going to make it hard for him to get people to agree to follow him when the time comes," Harry sighed. "Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people who will side with him, and they're going to be the problem as they'll listen to him without hesitation."  
  
"Like my parents and brothers," Ginny realized with a nod.  
  
"Yes," Tracey agreed with a nod.  
  
"That's why Ron is only being treated like someone with a black Journal, Gin," Harry said. "When Tom comes back — and he will be back — we're going to need someone to get us information from Dumbledore's side, someone they won't expect. You and the twins are close friends to me, and everyone knows it, but if only a few of us realize that Ron is someone I'm willing to talk to and teach, your parents and Dumbledore won't realize that he's able to feed me information or anything like that."  
  
"Planning ahead," Ginny gasped and Harry saw she was finally understanding what had confused a lot of people since the Quidditch World Cup and was still confusing most.  
  
"Your brother agreed to the idea when I told him my thoughts away from everyone else," Harry said with a nod. "He said that he wanted to be useful, and he felt this idea was the way he could do that as well as redeem himself for the past, though I tried to tell him that he didn't have to make up for that. Figured out then that it isn't just you who's stubborn in the Weasley family."  
  
"We're all pretty stubborn," Ginny admitted with a soft chuckle, and they all fell silent for a bit.  
  
"Harry, if you aren't on Tom's side, or on Dumbledore's side, then whose side are you on?" Ginny asked finally, and Harry knew how to answer as he had been expecting this question for a long time now.  
  
"My own side," he said, and Ginny looked at him in confusion.  
  
"He's against Voldemort, Ginny, but he's not willing to become Dumbledore's weapon, which is obviously what Dumbledore wants, seeing as he still hasn't told Harry about the Prophecy," Tracey elaborated. "When Dumbledore starts treating Harry like an equal, then he might just work alongside Dumbledore."  
  
"Until then, I don't trust him," Harry finished for Tracey with a nod.  
  
"Why not?" Ginny asked, and Harry could tell that she had realized this wasn't the only reason.  
  
"In my first year, Quirrell — the Defense professor at the time — cursed my broom to try to throw me off, and do you know what Dumbledore did about him?" Ginny shook her head slowly. "Nothing! He did absolutely nothing! Quirrell was still at the school until he mysteriously died _protecting_ the Philosopher's Stone. I'm betting you Quirrell was the one trying to steal it!"  
  
Ginny was gaping at him, and Tracey had her hand on his arm, but Harry was remembering so much about Dumbledore right now that he couldn't pay them much attention at all.  
  
"In your first year, Ginny, it wouldn't surprise me if he had guessed that it was at least a Basilisk and that it was somehow Tom opening the Chamber. Plus, I _handed_ him the diary! If he didn't realize it was a Horcrux from my description, then he doesn't earn the title of being the most powerful wizard. Had he told me anything about it? _NO_!"  
  
"Harry, calm down," Tracey said weakly, but Harry was on a roll as he stood up and began pacing.  
  
"And Sirius! He didn't even give him a second chance, let alone try to actually get him a trial! Dumbledore just threw him to the Dementors without a second thought, not even imagining that there might be something else to the story.  
  
"That reminds me: He left me with the Dursleys thirteen years ago! Did he even check on me once? No, he just left me there to their abuse and my horrible life. Even when my Hogwarts letter was sent to me with the Cupboard under the Stairs as my place of residence, no one bothered to check on me." Harry was growling by then, but he didn't care.  
  
"Harry!" Ginny said sharply, and he froze in place before turning to look at her. He knew his face showed his anger on it, but Harry also knew Ginny would know it wasn't aimed at her.  
  
Suddenly, a light brown cat jumped towards him, and Harry caught her instinctively, holding Tracey to him gently. She must have transformed, knowing that he would be calmer with something in his arms. Also, they all knew that Tracey could calm Harry down when he was only a bit upset, but only Ginny could get him calm when he was in a terrible mood. In fact, just looking at Ginny while holding Tracey was calming him down greatly.  
  
"I know it's hard — thinking about Dumbledore and all that he's done to you throughout your life, all that he's kept from you, but you've got to calm down," Ginny said slowly, walking up to stand in front of him with a hand on his arm as her brown eyes looked into his own.  
  
"He's done so much that affects me, and it's so hard to realize it," Harry sighed as he looked at Tracey in his arms instead of at Ginny.  
  
"I know, Harry, but you can't let this anger rule you," Ginny said softly. "For once I have to take a leaf out of Tracey's book as say that you're acting like a Gryffindor."  
  
"I am not!" Harry exclaimed, eyes flashing dangerously as he looked up at Ginny sharply. "If I was a Gryffindor, I'd probably be ignoring all the wrong Dumbledore's done and be following him blindly instead of cautiously like I am."  
  
Tracey made a noise of agreement from his arms as she looked at both Harry and Ginny with her blue eyes.  
  
"Just calm down, please, Harry," Ginny said desperately, and Harry realized she had noticed he was getting worked up again, so he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them, a bit calmer.  
  
"Let's just go," he sighed, bending down to place Tracey on the floor so that she could change back before grabbing his bag and leaving the room, all the while feeling both girls watching him from behind, their worry obvious. _  
_


	11. Chapter Eleven

“They’re trying to kill us,” Blaise moaned as he threw himself under the large tree close to the lake after Potions class on Friday. “We’ve got so much homework and this is only the first full week we’ve had so far.”

“Blaise, we have OWLs next year,” Hermione said sharply as she sat down with her back against the tree, giving the boy laying on his back a disappointed look.  
  
“Hermione, that’s almost two years away!” Harry groaned. “I know it’s important that we do well on the OWLs,” he added when she glared at him, “but starting this early is going to do anything but help us. We’ll be so stressed out by the time the tests come that it’ll be a miracle we can even concentrate on them. They’d do better to keep to a pace that doesn’t stress us out but still makes sure we learn what we have to so that we pass next year.”  
  
“You do have a point,” she admitted with a sigh.  
  
“Hey, Harry, where’s Ginny?” Tracey asked suddenly, or at least it seemed sudden to everyone but Harry.  
  
“I’m not sure,” he said, trying hard not to smirk. “She said she’d meet us out here when she was done with class, and she had Herbology last, so she should be here already.”  
  
“Her friends probably just held her up or something; you don’t have anything to worry about,” Neville said quietly, and Harry smiled at his shy friend who rarely showed his confidence except during training.  
  
“Let’s see if we can’t figure out where she is,” Harry said, pulling out his Journal and moving to sit next to Tracey, who was smirking a little.  
  
“ _I solemnly swear I am up to no good,_ ” he said clearly as he placed a finger on the middle page of his Journal, and everyone turned to stare at him quickly as he looked at his Journal with a proud look on his face that was a mix of a smirk and a smile.  
  
“What the bloody hell are you doing, Harry?” Blaise demanded, and not even Daphne reprimanded him as she stared at the emerald book.  
  
“Looking for Ginny,” he replied as the newest function on his Journal activated.  
  
Before everyone’s eyes, the right page of Harry’s Journal split in half, the bottom part of it with the section on it for writing while the top was to show the conversation. On the middle page of the Journal, a list of all the floors of Hogwarts, all the Common Rooms, the grounds, the forest, the Quidditch Pitch, Hagrid’s hut, the kitchen, the lake, Dumbledore’s office, the greenhouses, and the Great Hall appeared. The leftmost page had a list that said Slytherins, Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, Teachers, Magical Creatures, and Guests.  
  
Harry tapped on Gryffindor, and it listed each year, each a different color. Tapping the light green of third year, a list of each student who was a Gryffindor third year appeared. After tapping Ginny’s name, Harry watched as the middle section of his Journal changed from the list of places in Hogwarts to a map of the grounds in front of the castle, where a star-shaped dot outlined in deep purple and going between light green and red every seven seconds was labeled Ginny. It was headed towards the group.  
  
Looking at the group by the lake, Harry saw a lot of stars outlined in the same deep purple, some dots sky blue while others were green or red as they, too, changed colors every seven seconds.  
  
In the lake, regular purple dots were labeled Merpeople while brown dots that showed the centaurs moved around in the trees behind the group.  
  
“What — what is this?” Hermione gasped, and Harry looked up to see that everyone but Tracey was staring at his Journal in disbelief.  
  
“Have you shown them the map yet?” Ginny asked as she reached the group, but then Harry saw her look at everyone’s faces and the Journal in his hands, and she laughed. “Never mind, I already have my answer.”  
  
“We haven’t gotten to the explanation yet, so you’re just in time to help,” Tracey told Ginny with a laugh, and Ginny groaned slightly, though she was smiling afterwards.  
  
“What is that?” Hermione demanded again.  
  
“A map, Hermione,” Harry said with a laugh. “A Marauder’s Map, to be exact.”  
  
“But — but how is it in the Journal?” she stuttered in amazement.  
  
“I helped these two find the charms they needed as they used the information on how to build the Journals and the Map to build this,” Ginny said with a smile. “It took them at least a week to get it right.”  
  
“You — you knew?” Daphne demanded, looking a bit angry.  
  
“Did you really just ask that, Daphe?” Theo asked, finally getting over his shock as he smirked at her. “This is Ginny we’re talking about here, and we all know Harry can’t keep anything from her.”  
  
“Oi!” Harry exclaimed angrily, but Ginny looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and he sighed, knowing it was true.  
  
“See?” Theo said smugly.  
  
“Oh shut it, Theodore,” Harry snapped, and Theo glared at the use of his full name.  
  
“Boys,” Tracey sighed, and Harry looked away from Theo to look at his Journal again.  
  
He tapped a little square at the bottom right of the actual map, and it went back to the list. After tapping the third floor, Harry was pleased to see that the section McGonagall had showed him, Tracey, and Gin was changed to look like the design on the paper they had given the professors. Even better, she, Flitwick, and Dumbledore were in the rooms, obviously working on the area.  
  
Before anyone could see what he was looking at, Harry flipped the map to the Gryffindor Common Room, raising an eyebrow as he saw the twins were running all around the room. He didn’t think he wanted to know what they were up to.  
  
“Are you going to put that into our Journals?” Neville suddenly asked, drawing Harry’s attention back to his friends before he shared a look with Tracey.  
  
“Maybe sometime soon,” he told his friends, and they all made disappointed sounds that had he, Tracey, and Ginny chuckling.  
  
“Why not now?” Theo whined, sounding younger than his fourteen years.  
  
“We have our reasons,” Harry said mysteriously as he and the girls shared looks. They were both smiling as it was obvious to Harry they were thinking about the secret rooms, which had yet to be named.  
  
“I hate it when they’re like this,” Blaise stage-whispered to Theo, who nodded in agreement while the three laughed.  
  
“Sorry guys, but I think you’ll agree with us when we say that the wait will be worth it,” Ginny said, knowing that both the rooms and the map would please them when their friends got them both.  
  
“You three are evil,” Theo muttered, and they only laughed as Harry put his Journal away again and relaxed with Ginny and Tracey on either side of him, enjoying the autumn weather.

…

_Harry: Are you ready, Gin?_  
  
_Ginny: In position._  
  
_Harry: Trace, do you have the powder and potions to go with the string and traps?_  
  
_Tracey: All in the pouch you gave me._  
  
_Harry: Then let’s set this up and watch the effects._

…

Harry was trying very hard not to laugh as he watched groups of students enter the Great Hall for dinner Monday evening. He and Tracey had spent their double period of no classes — because it was Arithmancy time — going around and putting potions and powder on strings and other traps Ginny had placed all around the school. Only the three of them knew the spell to counter the traps, so none of them would accidentally trip their own prank.  
  
As they all walked into the Hall, a final string was in place that everyone set off. Within five minutes of walking into the Hall, anyone who had walked past another of the traps suddenly had a prank pulled on them, resulting in most people being pranked multiple times.  
  
Some people had been jinxed with random colors ranging from the House colors to pink to orange to neon green. Another prank was animal parts adorning each person. A few had cat ears, some had tails, fur sprouted in random areas, there were even a few people with wings on their backs while others had wolf faces; it was crazy, especially when someone had been hexed with more than one animal spell.  
  
One of the best pranks was the one to the clothes. Many people found themselves wearing robes of different Houses or dress robes. There were many students in Muggle clothes instead of robes. What was the most hilarious to see were the people in Muggle clothes of the opposite gender.  
  
The special prank all three of them had pulled, however, was done by using the Map to find the twins’ last class while using their Journals to figure out the boys’ magical signatures so that the trap would only work on them; it would cancel out any other pranks that might have been placed on them.  
  
When their prank activated, both of them screamed and drew attention to themselves. Both of them now wore Slytherin robes with fake snakes around their necks, arms, and legs along with their torso. Their hair was still red, but it had taken both Tracey and Ginny together to persuade Harry to leave it alone, saying it would only give it away quicker that he had been part of this particular prank.  
  
Many of the students weren’t pranked, though it was mostly those who had been in Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, or had a free period. The paths from the library and outside had been clear of traps, as had the main passages from the Common Rooms, giving the three pranksters an excuse for being un-pranked. The professors had also been left alone.  
  
Even better, though, was that Harry knew no one could leave the Great Hall for the next thirty minutes because the string in the doorway was enchanted to stop anyone still pranked from passing over it. There were strings at every other entrance into the Hall as well.  
  
“Did you do this to us?” Blaise demanded as he gestured to the frilly dresses on him and Theo.  
  
“Of course not,” Daphne replied a bit harshly, obviously not noticing as Harry had that Blaise had been looking at him.  
  
“He was talking to me, Daphe,” he said softly, and she looked at both he and Blaise apologetically.  
  
“Did you?” Blaise asked again, and Harry just shrugged.  
  
“The war games from this summer were useful, weren’t they, Harry?” Draco asked with a smirk, obviously trying to get him into trouble with Blaise and Theo.  
  
“This is such a great prank, Harry!” Theo said as he finally recovered and looked around. “Look at everyone; they’re all enjoying it now!”  
  
He was right. Around the Hall, everyone had finally gotten used to the new looks and began moving around to check out the other pranks on everyone. Some were comparing themselves to one another. Those who hadn’t been pranked were checking out the others. Harry could even hear people trying to guess how it had been done, seeing as most people in the same classes had the same pranks done on them, though many had more or less depending on which corridor they’d taken.  
  
Blaise groaned, and Harry knew from just one look at his face that it was because he had realized he couldn’t really be annoyed with Harry after seeing how the others were reacting.  
  
“Just change me back, please,” he said as he put his face in his hands.  
  
“You’ll be back to normal in less than twenty minutes,” Harry said after checking his watch. “Each person is only pranked for thirty minutes exactly after it activates, then it all goes away completely.  
  
“You’re a pain in the arse, did you know that?” Blaise stated with a glare, and Harry just smiled at his friend.

…

“I’ve been meaning to ask you guys, how do you like Professor Moody?” Hermione asked the next morning at breakfast, probably remembering because Blaise had just groaned as he remembered they had Defense right after breakfast.  
  
“His first lesson was a bloody nightmare,” Theo muttered, and the rest of the Slytherins nodded.  
  
“Why?” Padma asked, surprised.  
  
“Imagine being in a room with an ex-Auror who is teaching the children of Death Eaters about the Unforgivables,” Harry said for his friends. “He was glaring at them as if everything their parents had done with the curses was their fault. It was a nightmare to go through.”  
  
“Even worse was when he mentioned Harry is the only one to have survived the Killing Curse,” Tracey added. “You should have seen his face when he…” She trailed off, looking at Harry.  
  
“When I realized how my parents had died,” he finished for her, smiling sadly, and most of the others realized why it had been such a hard lesson.  
  
“I didn’t realize…” Hermione said softly.  
  
“It’s fine,” Harry said. “Just don’t expect most of us to enjoy Moody, not with our different pasts.”  
  
“Come on, we’d better get going to Moody’s class,” Daphne said, and the other Slytherins all stood up to go.

…

“I’m going to be putting the Imperius Curse on you all today,” Moody snarled as the Slytherins watched him pace at the front of the room, his wooden peg leg making a sound with every other step.  
  
“Sir, that’s illegal!” Tracey exclaimed, and Harry knew the two of them were among the only two who were able to say anything right now.  
  
“If you want to leave, then go ahead and leave, but Dumbledore wants you to know how it feels to have it placed on you,” Moody told her, walking up to stare her in the face. “You can try and learn how it feels when someone is trying to control you, or you can stay here and learn from me.”  
  
Beside Harry, Draco was shuddering lightly, and Harry could see almost the entire class was scared. He knew none of them would take having Moody place the Imperius Curse on them well. It was bad enough they had to deal with him teaching them all with how he treated them and their parents, mostly their fathers, but to have him use the curse that would give Moody total control of them? Harry thought they would rather leave the class for the day.  
  
“So, are you all going to stay, or are you going to leave?” Moody asked harshly, and Harry had to fight down the urge to glare at him, carefully keeping his mask up while working on strengthening his Occlumency shields, knowing they would help as he wasn’t leaving.  
  
Around the room, Harry saw Crabbe and Goyle looking at Draco next to him, obviously afraid of the curse, but unsure if they should leave or not. Pansy seemed to be about to jump out of her seat and run, but she was still thinking. Millicent Bulstrode had stood up and was leaving the room, unwilling to let him curse her.  
  
Looking at his own friends, Harry saw that Blaise had a hard look on his face, as if he was steeling himself up to do something he was dead set against. Beside him, Theo was looking around the room, his eyes wild, before they settled on Tracey and his face as went hard. Daphne was a bit more relaxed than the others, but she was still tense and didn’t look like she was happy about this. Tracey shared a look with Harry, and he knew she was scared but willing to try it, if only so that she could protect the others from the chance of her being controlled.  
  
Draco looked at Crabbe and Goyle and nodded at them. They both looked relieved as they left the room in a rush, and Harry knew that Draco cared about his friends enough to not put them through something like this if they didn’t want to. One look at those two boys leaving, and Pansy followed, though she gave Draco a pleading look that he shook his head at before leaving.  
  
“I’m staying,” Draco whispered in a shaky voice, and Harry nodded in response. He knew how hard this was for his friends, but they were all willing to do it.  
  
“At least some of you aren’t afraid to try,” Moody said with what seemed like a hint of pride in his voice, though Harry thought he was imagining it as the man’s face was hard. “Now, stand up so that I can move these desks out of the way.”  
  
Harry and his five friends stood up quickly, grabbing their bags as Moody waved his wand to move the desks to the walls of the room. Then, they all moved to place their bags on the desks and sit on top of them.  
  
“Who’s going first?” Moody asked quietly, looking at each person’s face, as if trying to decide who was the least afraid. “Potter, let’s start with you,” he finally said, and Harry stood up. He had been expecting to go first anyway, seeing as it would make it easier on his friends.  
  
“ _Imperio_ ,” Moody snarled as he pointed his wand at Harry once he was in the middle of the room.  
  
It was the most wonderful feeling. Harry felt a floating sensation as every thought and worry in his head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. He stood there feeling immensely relaxed, only dimly aware of everyone watching him.  
  
And then he heard Mad-Eye Moody's voice, echoing in some distant chamber of his empty brain: _Dance like a ballerina… dance like a ballerina…_  
  
Harry felt himself begin to turn, ready to being dancing, when another voice woke up in his mind, louder than Moody’s.  
  
_Why?_ it asked. _There’s no reason to do this.  
  
Dance like a ballerina…  
  
I don’t have to,_ the voice said again. _It’s a stupid thing to do, that’s for sure.  
  
Dance like a ballerina…  
  
Don’t think so. There’s no reason for me to.  
  
Dance like a ballerina! NOW!  
  
No thanks._  
  
Harry began to spin around when the other part of his mind stopped him, and he fell on his bum, wincing at he felt the pain from landing on the hard stone floor before the fog disappeared from his mind.  
  
“He fought it!” Moody snarled, though Harry could see he was pleased as he stood up. “You damn near beat it. Just a few more moments and you would have had it. Let’s try again.”  
  
The second time, Harry managed to throw it off, and he moved to go sit next to Tracey on the desks by his friends. They were all staring at him, slightly awed.  
  
“That was amazing, Harry,” Tracey said as Moody called Blaise up. He just nodded in response, watching his friend.  
  
Blaise stood in the middle of the room with Moody staring at him, and suddenly Blaise walked over to one of the few desks not in the room and bent his legs, obviously about to jump on it. He jumped on top of it but then fell off it, a pained expression on his face.  
  
“It seems we have some strong people in this group,” Moody said, sounding a bit surprised. “Zabini, you fought it as well, though not as well as Potter. Try again.”  
  
After another five times, Blaise finally had it down enough that he was able to throw off the curse after a bit of work, but before Moody could make him do anything.  
  
Daphne went up next, and Moody made her spin around in circles. At the end of it, right before he took the curse off, she fell down and Moody nodded once. She was put under the curse a few more times until she could fight it off, though it still took her a while.  
  
When Draco went up, he was shaking, but he looked Moody right in the eyes as he had the curse put on him, as if saying he was going to prove him wrong. Moody just smiled slightly and used the curse, his smile growing smugger as Draco was placed under its influence. Before their eyes, Draco grabbed his left forearm and began laughing.  
  
Suddenly, Draco yelled and ripped his hand away from his arm, glaring at Moody. He was shaking with rage, and Moody was staring at him, a bit shocked. It seemed he hadn’t thought Draco would be able to throw off the curse. Of course, what he had been making Draco do probably set off the blond, seeing that he had been trying to make him act as if he was a Death Eater holding his Mark and laughing.  
  
“ _How dare you!_ ” Draco shouted, shaking with rage still as his hand flew to his holster and he glared at their teacher.  
  
Before anyone knew what was happening, Draco was pointing his wand at Moody, and the ex-Auror had his on Draco.  
  
Harry rushed over to his friend and put a hand on the boy’s wand arm, pushing it down gently. Draco didn’t fight Harry, but it was obvious he wanted revenge on Moody for what he had done to him. Harry knew that they had to get Draco out of there, and it didn’t help that Theo was also glaring at Moody, though he wasn’t shaking as badly as Draco. Blaise, Daphne, and Tracey were as mad as Harry, but they realized the danger of letting their anger show until they had gotten the pair out of Moody’s range.  
  
“We’re done,” Harry stated with a hard tone to his voice as he pulled Draco’s wand from the blonde’s hand and gestured for Tracey to get their bags before helping him.  
  
Without a backwards look at Moody, though his senses were on high alert for any noise, Harry took his bag from Tracey and flung it over his head while still keeping a firm grip on Draco’s wand arm. Tracey grabbed his other arm while Daphne and Blaise did the same to Theo. Together, all six left the room, being careful not to let Draco or Theo go back and attack Moody.  
  
“How could he?!” Draco snarled as the group finally reached the fourth year boys’ dormitory in the Slytherin dungeon. They had gone there to get away from prying eyes, and also because Moody couldn’t get down there without their knowing.  
  
“I can’t believe he did that!” Theo yelled, and Harry quickly put up a silencing charm on the room so that no other Slytherins would come running to see what the problem was. It was a good thing their Defense class was supposed to be a double lesson today as it meant no one would be expecting them until lunch, which was over an hour away.  
  
“He was trying to make it seem like you were a Death Eater,” Blaise said darkly, and Draco and Theo growled as they thought about it.  
  
“I’m willing to bet he was going to do it to me as well if we hadn’t left,” Theo muttered, and no one could deny that it was a real possibility.  
  
“Do we actually have to learn from him?” Daphne asked softly, and Harry knew that they were all upset by this.  
  
“Unfortunately,” Tracey replied just as softly, and they all sighed sadly.  
  
“Why?” Draco suddenly asked, and everyone looked up at him, startled. “Why does he treat us as if we’re our fathers? It’s as if _we’re_ the Death Eaters to him, not them.”  
  
No one could say anything as they didn’t have an answer to it. They all knew that that was exactly what Moody was doing, and there was nothing they could say in response to it because they didn’t know why.  
  
It was going to be a very _long_ year if Moody was teaching them all like he had been, Harry knew.


	12. Chapter Twelve

“This is how much we’ve done,” McGonagall said as she let Harry, Ginny, and Tracey into the room, showing them all the rooms they had built so far.

“It’s amazing, Professor,” Ginny said, some awe in her voice as they all looked around at their designs coming to life. “Just how we imagined it.”  
  
“If you’d like, this room is ready for you to work on,” McGonagall told them, gesturing to the room between the restrooms.  
  
“Can we be alone while we work on this, Professor?” Harry asked, looking at the door.  
  
“Of course.” McGonagall left the room.  
  
“Do you have the books, Harry?” Tracey asked, and Harry reached into his bag.  
  
“Of course,” he said, pretending to be insulted as he pulled out a small pile of books.  
  
“Oh don’t use that on me, Harry,” Tracey snapped playfully.  
  
They all sat down in the middle of the room they were to build together. Ginny took the book of notes that had been made for her to use so that she could decorate the room because she couldn’t read or understand the charms Harry and Tracey would be using as they were from the Journal book from Samuel . Harry pulled out the book on their notes while Tracey pulled out her father’s book.  
  
“This charm is going to go on the door so that no one who hasn’t owned a Journal at some point can get in, right?” Harry asked, showing Tracey the charm, and she nodded.  
  
“That charm is going to be used so that anyone who lost their Journal because of a change of thought can’t get in or even remember the room,” Tracey reminded him, pointing to another.  
  
“And this one will make sure no one else can even see the door without at least knowing about the Journals,” Harry finished as he stood up with the book and went outside the room to begin charming the door.  
  
After casting those three charms, Harry went back inside to see Ginny making four of the five walls of the pentagon-shaped room a different color. There was one wall for each House while the one with the door would be black for Hogwarts. This room was to be a special room for those using the Journals, and it would show that all of the Houses were united.  
  
“Nice one,” Harry commented as Ginny put the Slytherin and Gryffindor walls side-by-side. “A good way to show how it’s different from how it used to be.”  
  
Ginny just smiled and nodded in thanks before going back to painting the green, red, blue, and yellow with her wand. Then she transfigured curtains out of some paper Harry and Tracey had found for the spell so that each wall had curtains of the secondary colors for each House right by the ceiling but against the wall.  
  
Tracey reached into her own bag and pulled out the shrunken furniture she and Harry had ordered for the room, though she also had the stuff for the other rooms just in case they were ready for it.  
  
Harry finally went back to the books and began looking for more of the charms they had prepared. He and Tracey were going to charm a few cabinets to hold the Journals for future years, and they were also going to make more of the Journals.  
  
When Ginny was finally done, Tracey enlarged the furniture. The three of them worked together to push a cabinet against each wall. While Tracey began charming the cabinets to have more space than they seemed to as well as to only be accessed by the leader of that specific House--the leader of leaders being the exception--Harry and Ginny slowly but surely charmed the floor to be wood instead of stone, putting a charm on it so that nothing would affect it.  
  
They all finished at about the same time. Harry then pulled from his bag the new black Journals which he and Tracy had been keeping safe in his trunk. He gave Ginny the ones for Gryffindor while Tracy took the Slytherin ones. They immediately put the leader Journals on the top shelf of each cabinet and arranged the rest – the normal black Journals – on the lower shelves. Harry took charge of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Journals, putting them away just as carefully. The three of them were happy that Tracey had charmed the cabinets the way she had because otherwise all the new Journals wouldn’t have fit inside .  
  
“Come on,” he finally said as they looked around the room at their work. “Let’s go put some of the furniture away in the other room and decorate it a bit before Tracey and I go back to the dorms to take a nap before the Tuesday night Astronomy lesson. Plus, Draco and Theo are still upset by Moody’s class earlier today. We need to see how they are, too.”  
  
The two girls nodded, Ginny having been filled in on the lesson earlier, and they set off to work.

…

“Where have you three been disappearing to lately?” Theo asked at breakfast the next morning.  
  
“Yeah, you lot disappeared last night after dinner,” Hermione added as she looked up from her Arithmancy book.  
  
“Do you really think we’re going to tell you where we’ve been?” Ginny asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.  
  
“We can hope, can’t we?” Draco asked as he sat down next to Theo, obviously having been listening as he walked over.  
  
“Doesn’t mean it’ll happen,” Harry said as he reached for the pumpkin juice and poured himself some more before offering to fill Ginny’s glass.  
  
“Will you tell us?” Padma asked, and Harry looked at the two girls with a raised eyebrow. Tracey raised both her eyebrows while Ginny’s went down, making Harry roll his eyes before giving Ginny a look.  
  
“We’ve been talking to McGonagall,” she said with a sigh as Harry’s look obviously made her realize that she had lost.  
  
“And Snape, never forget Snape,” Harry added with a slight smirk.  
  
“Oh yes, and Professor Snape,” Ginny agreed with a nod. At the shocked looks on the others’ faces, all three just raised their eyebrows, waiting for a response.  
  
“Why are you meeting with them?” Draco got out after about a minute of shocked silence.  
  
“That we’re not telling you,” Harry stated with a smile, and this time the trio couldn’t hold in their laughter at the looks on their friends’ faces at this declaration.  
  
“I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: You three are _evil_ ,” Theo muttered.  
  
“Thank you,” all three said at once, and the others groaned as the three smiled brightly, taking that as a compliment.

…

“It’s done,” Ginny sighed as she collapsed onto one of the burgundy couches in the main room after all three of them had put the finishing touches on the rooms.  
  
“This is an amazing set of rooms,” Professor Dumbledore commented as he looked around the rooms he had helped originally make while the three students had set the rest up.  
  
“Thanks, Professor,” Harry said for them as he sat down next to Ginny, also a bit tired after putting so many books on shelves. Sirius had just sent them this morning, so it had taken over an hour to put them in the correct places after charming them so that they couldn’t leave the specific rooms.  
  
“Your designs were very detailed and quite amazing,” Professor Flitwick squeaked as he slid his wand away into his robe. “Quite a lot of information in how to make the room look, what to have in each, and what charms needed to be on each part of the rooms.”  
  
“We felt it would help you agree to help us,” Harry said, blushing slightly at their praise.  
  
“Yours and Ms. Davis’s idea, I gather?” Professor Snape said with a raised eyebrow, and both of them nodded.  
  
“I believe you’ve each earned a hundred points for your Houses with all of the work you’ve put into this,” Professor Dumbledore said, and all three of the students looked at him in shock, but the others were nodding in agreement.  
  
“This is a wonderful way to make the Houses even closer,” Professor McGonagall agreed. “And when the other schools get here, these rooms can help all of the students get closer between the schools.”  
  
“Quite true,” Professor Sprout said with a nod.  
  
“I believe we shall leave the naming of these rooms up to you,” Professor Dumbledore concluded with a smile, and the three shared surprised looks. None of them had even thought about what to use for a name.  
  
“Thanks, Professor,” Harry said, and the Headmaster nodded.  
  
“I believe our job is done here,” Snape said for the teachers, and they all commended the two Slytherins and single Gryffindor on their way out.  
  
“We didn’t even think about a name for this place,” Tracey commented as the door closed and she sat down on an armchair across from Harry and Ginny’s couch.  
  
“What in Merlin’s name can we call this place?” Harry groaned, putting his head in his hands.  
  
“Do we want the name to having meaning?” Ginny asked.  
  
“Of course,” Tracey replied, and Harry nodded into his hands.  
  
“Why not call it The Den?” Ginny suggested, and Harry lifted his head from his hands to look up at her in confusion. “You’re a wolf, and wolves live in dens, so why don’t we call it The Den?”  
  
“That’s an idea,” he admitted, “but it won’t mean much to anyone outside of those who know about the Animagus training.”  
  
“Actually…” Tracey began, and the two of them looked at her. “Den is another name for a living room.”  
  
“How in the world do you know that?” Harry asked her, his mouth a bit open in shock as he hadn’t even known that.  
  
“I’ve told you about how my parents used to take me to different parts of the world, right?” she asked him, and he nodded because she had once told him about it. “Well, when I was about nine, they took me to America . It turns out that den is another name for living room. I remember it because it was odd and caught my attention. It’s a bit informal and isn’t used everywhere, but it _is_ used.”  
  
“A name with double meaning,” Harry said with an amused smirk that Ginny shared with him. “I like it. The Den, meaning living room for everyone, and having the second meaning of where wolves live for those who know of our training.”  
  
Harry stood up and went out of the room to the doorway outside, above which a large piece of wood stood for a sign. Pulling out his wand, he carefully, using a spell to make it look really neat, carved _The Den_ into the wood. Going back inside, he did it again on another sign hanging on the wall on the yellow Hufflepuff wall right across from the door.  
  
“We’re done,” he sighed, and the three of them shared proud smiles, looking around at their hard work.  
  
“It’s worth all the work and having to evade the others,” Ginny stated as Harry sat down again, and he nodded.  
  
“When are the first years going to be ready?” Tracey asked, knowing that Harry and Ginny would know better, being leaders and talking with the others on the Journals more than she did, especially Harry.  
  
“Saturday,” Harry replied, and Tracey nodded. Saturday would be the day after tomorrow as it was Thursday.  
  
“I think we should have Dumbledore announce this room tomorrow,” Ginny said suddenly, and Harry and Tracey looked up at her, a bit shocked. “What? It’s done and ready to go. It’ll be easier getting those with Journals into the room if they’ve all been introduced, and it’ll stop the others from questioning us anymore. Plus, we all know that the weekend is when Hermione questions us more than any other time, and she’ll never give up until she knows everything she can.”  
  
Harry sighed as he knew she was right about Hermione. The bushy-haired Gryffindor hadn’t gotten off their case in the whole time they had been working on the room. Almost every meal their whereabouts when they all disappeared was brought up, and she was relentless whenever she was with even one of them on the weekends. It was lucky they all had been expecting it and weren’t caught unawares.  
  
“Fine, tell him, please?” he sighed, but Ginny gave him a look that obviously said _you’re the leader so you’re telling him_. “Okay, I’ll tell him,” he groaned, and Ginny smirked at him slightly. “But _you_ get to deal with Hermione tomorrow instead of Tracey and me.”  
  
Ginny groaned, but nodded, and Harry knew she had realized it was only fair. If he had to talk to the Headmaster yet again, she had to deal with the girl who would be annoying them to death the next day.  
  
“Well, I’m glad that’s settled,” Tracey said cheerfully as she clapped her hands together. “Can I get out of here before you two start flirting again?”  
  
Before Tracey could react, both Harry and Ginny transformed into their Animagus forms, jumping on her and knocking her to the ground before she could change into her smaller cat form.  
  
It was quite normal for this to happen when Harry and Ginny as a couple were brought up, so Tracey just let them win until they got bored of attacking her and started wrestling with one another. Harry knew from watching his friends that they were just waiting to see how long it would take them to get together, and he was driving them all up the wall by pretending to be ignorant.  
  
He and Ginny agree that it was one of the most amusing things to watch.

…

“Never again,” Ginny said groaned as she almost threw her school bag onto the ground by Harry’s and flung herself onto the bench beside him.  
  
Harry and Tracey chuckled slightly before giving her sympathetic looks. All three of them had taken turns on Hermione-Duty, which was the one thing none of them wanted. One of them would make sure Hermione knew who to question that day, and the whole day was spent keeping Hermione from finding out about The Den. In fact, if it wasn’t for the Maps and Harry’s Invisibility Cloak, they would have been found out long ago.  
  
“Why can’t you just tell me what you’ve been up to?” Hermione asked as she carefully placed her bag on the ground and sat down across from Harry, who had one girl on either side of him, though she was looking at Ginny.  
  
Tracey looked at Harry, who looked at Ginny. Ginny glared at him with a desperate look in her eyes that said she was out of ideas on how to stop Hermione. This was reasonable as they had been going at it for weeks now, and it had been an entire day now. He sighed and nodded slightly to let her know he would make her shut up for the meal. Ginny sighed in relief at thanked him with her eyes, though she knew she would have to do it properly later or Harry would make sure she regretted it in some way.  
  
“If we told you, it would ruin the surprise,” Harry commented dryly, carefully grabbing a drumstick and taking a bite of it.  
  
“The surprise?” Hermione asked, looking at him in shock.  
  
“What, did you t hink the reason we’ve been disappearing is because Ginny and I are secretly snogging and managed to turn Tracey against you by having her keep lookout for us so that none of you could find out?” he asked, internally smirking as that had become the most-used guess among everyone with a Colored Journal and much of the Journal group.  
  
Around them, anyone within hearing distance suddenly turned away and began conversations, reading, doing homework, or eating their dinners so that it wouldn’t seem like they were paying attention.  
  
Next to him, both girls looked up at Harry in a bit of shock, though Harry was looking at Ginny with a raised eyebrow. Her face showed shock, and her eyes were asking if that was actually the rumor, so he nodded slightly. Brown eyes turned hard as the redhead turned her head slowly to glare at their friends, whether they had black Journals or Colored Journals.  
  
Before another word could be said, Professor Dumbledore stood, silencing the entire Hall immediately. He looked around at the students in the Hall, all of whom had realized that this was an unusual announcement as the Headmaster usually said something at the beginning or end of dinner, not in the middle. The three who knew what this was about continued to eat their meals while looking up at him, catching his eyes with small smiles.  
  
“For the past few weeks, many Professors, three students, and I have been working on a set of rooms on the third floor,” he began, his eyes twinkling. “The three students brought an idea to their Heads of House, and in turn, it was brought to me. It did not take long for the entire staff to agree to help the students create their well-designed area in the school. As of last night, the rooms are completed, furnished, and filled with supplies.”  
  
Dumbledore caught Harry’s eyes, and the Slytherin nodded ever-so-slightly, putting his dinner down and turning to show Dumbledore that he was ready to explain.  
  
“Now, many of you are probably wondering what is in these rooms. Instead of explaining myself, Mr. Harry Potter has agreed to explain what the rooms are for.”  
  
As Dumbledore sat down, Harry stood up and walked to the Head Table, standing in front of it with his hands behind his back as he looked around the Hall. His closest friends were looking at him in shock, those with Journals were a bit amazed, and those without Journals were skeptical. Ginny and Tracey were trying to hold in their laughter.  
  
“Many of my friends have been wondering for weeks why Tracey Davis, Ginny Weasley, and I have not been around quite a lot,” he began with a wry smile that had much of the Hall blushing and looking embarrassed. “The three of us came up with an idea that the professors agreed to.  
  
“You see, we realized that there’s really no place for us all to hang out except outside or in our Common Rooms. Now, outside is great until it’s winter or when it’s soggy and disgusting outside. The Common Rooms are fine as well, except many people don’t want other Houses in their Common Rooms and there isn’t a lot of space in them.  
  
“The three of us came up with the idea of a series of rooms with one main room that anyone could hang out in. We call these rooms ‘The Den.’ Attached to the main room of the Den is a hallway that has a bunch of small study rooms with the normal textbooks for each year along with other resources. They also have muffling charms on them so that it’s quiet in the rooms, but one can still hear in case something is happening in the other rooms.  
  
“There are also rooms made specifically for practicing spells. They have targets, dummies, pillows, and anything else one may need for Transfiguration, Charms, or Defense class.  
  
“In the main room, there is a cabinet with all sorts of games, both Wizarding and Muggle, and another has food and drink, though there is no alcohol allowed in the rooms. More couches than I wish to admit are in the main room along with many large and small tables and armchairs, all for reading, talking, doing homework, and just hanging out in it. There are many fireplaces, both in the walls and in the middle of the room.  
  
“The Den is for us to interact in, including those older than my friends. Nothing in the Den can be removed from the rooms they are currently in except for food and drink. Just remember that these rooms are not the Common Rooms, so being in them after curfew is the same as being out of a Common Room.  
  
“After dinner, Ginny, Tracey, and I will be leading anyone who wishes to see the Den to it. If you wish to see it, just wait until we’re all done eating, and you can join us. Remember, the Den is for _all_ the Houses, so not a single House is above the others in how we decorated.”  
  
Harry turned, nodded to the professors, and walked back to his seat, sitting down and sighing deeply in relief, glad that that was over. The girls put hands on his arms to show their support, but Dumbledore stood up again before anyone could say anything to them, though there was a lot of whispering around the Hall.  
  
“Thank you, Mr. Potter,” he said, nodding at Harry, who returned the favor. “Teachers may go to the Den for the first few weeks to be sure everyone is behaving appropriately, but Prefects are still in charge in these rooms. I hope you find the Den to your liking as, if I do say so myself, they are quite spectacular. Please, enjoy the rest of your meals.”  
  
“Okay, what is this about?” Hermione demanded before Dumbledore could even sit down, but Harry, Ginny, and Tracey just picked up their forks and continued to eat, not saying a single word.  
  
“Just give it up, Hermione,” Theo advised her. “When these two are in this sort of mood, it’s impossible to get anything out of them, and Ginny is just the same from what I’ve seen.”  
  
Hermione sighed, but everyone left the trio alone as they ate their meals. Around them, everyone was standing up or looking over at them, waiting for them to finish.  
  
“ _Think we should eat slower just to annoy them?_ ” Harry hissed to Ginny in amusement as he caught sight of some Ravenclaw seventh years standing up to look at them yet again.  
  
“ _Normally I’d say yes, but our closest friends would kill us,_ ” she replied.  
  
“ _True_ ,” Harry sighed with a hiss, glancing at his friends, all of whom were done and waiting quite impatiently.  
  
“Will you hurry up already?” Theo demanded. The three shared looks before shaking their heads and eating some more.  
  
“That was stupid of you, Theo,” Draco commented. “We all know that annoying these three makes them do the opposite of what we want,” he elaborated when the others looked at him in surprise, and everyone groaned.  
  
“Think we’ve tortured them enough?” Harry whispered to the girls as their friends began talking, and they both nodded.  
  
Putting his fork and knife down, Harry drained his goblet before grabbing his bag, slinging it over his head as he stood up. Around him, everyone else began standing up, relief obvious on their faces as people grabbed bags and moved so that the three of them could get out of the Hall in front.  
  
Snickering in amusement, Harry led the group out of the Hall, Ginny on his right and Tracey on his left, everyone else behind them. They walked up to the third floor and to The Den quickly, knowing no one would get lost as The Den wasn’t hard to find.  
  
Entering the room, Harry looked around it with pride.  
  
The main room had four walls, each one a different House color. Along the walls were bookshelves full of books, some school and some novels, both Wizarding and Muggle.  
  
In the center of the room were a few large, square tables. Around the square tables were smaller, rectangular tables. All of them were for studying. At the edges of the room were small two- or four-person tables made for games like chess and cards. Between the tables for studying and the tables for games were groups of couches and armchairs as well as a few loveseats, firepits in the middle of them.  
  
The firepits in the room along with the fireplaces were charmed so that nothing more than a sheet of parchment could touch the flames, and no person could accidentally be burned.  
  
Looking towards his right, Harry saw five doors. The one near the corner that was the farthest away from the entrance was a cabinet full of games while the one in the corner closest to the main door led to a small room where the House-elves left snacks and drinks for the students to take from at any time.  
  
The doors next to those two were restrooms while the one between the restrooms was only visible to anyone with a Journal. It had taken a few days to find that specific charm, as it was the room Harry, Tracey, and Ginny had made themselves.  
  
Harry poked Tracey slightly and nodded at the door. She nodded, and when he looked a few moments later, she was leaning against the door, her arms across her chest and a small smile on her face as she watched the students look around.  
  
On the left side of the room from the entrance, there were ten doors. Harry knew that if the students looked in them they would find long rooms with a target on the opposite wall along with anything else needed to practice spells for classes. The rooms had been charmed to absorb magic and protect the occupants from spells.  
  
Under the sign on the opposite wall was a doorway that led into a hallway. The doors leading off from it were study rooms with a set of books from every year plus extra reading materials. They were to be used for studying in groups or alone. Anyone who wanted a quieter environment could use them as sound got through, but not very well.  
  
“None of the games or books can leave these rooms,” Harry called, silencing the room immediately. “Anything in the practice rooms will stay in there as well, the same with the study rooms. If you bring something into here, you may leave with it, but anything except food in here now is charmed to stay in the room. Everything will put itself away, but please, for the sake of everyone else, put the books at least back on the shelves when you’re done.  
  
“Now, look around the rooms, enjoy them, and just relax. All I ask is that you remember that these rooms are for everyone, so bullying is not tolerated. Also, when Beauxbatons and Durmstrang get here, they will be invited to join us in here, so expect them to mingle with us.”  
  
Harry and Ginny then went to stand by Tracey, also leaning against the door with arms over their chests as they watched everyone explore the amazing area.  
  
“How did you do all of this?” Hermione asked as she walked over to them, the first of their friends to do so.  
  
“Magic,” Harry replied with a laugh. Hermione just rolled her eyes.  
  
“I know _that_ , but how did you _really_ do all of this?” she asked with a touch of sarcasm in her voice.  
  
“By showing the professors this,” Harry sighed, pulling out the original designs for the rooms and unrolling it, holding it up for her and their other friends to see.  
  
“You made that?” Daphne asked, sounding a bit shocked. She and the others had joined the four of them just before Harry had pulled it out.  
  
“We were bored and knew having detailed designs would make presenting it to the professors look better,” Ginny said with a shrug, none of them phased at all by the looks on their friends’ faces.  
  
“Remind me never to get on your bad sides again,” Blaise muttered, and they all smirked.  
  
“We’ll do that the next time you get annoying,” Tracey promised, making Blaise groaned while the others laughed, though hesitantly, obviously afraid of the trio as well.  
  
“No wonder you managed to prank us over the summer so well,” Fred commented.  
  
“Yeah, with designing abilities like this, it’s a wonder you haven’t taken over for us yet,” George agreed.  
  
“Oh, we already decided that you both can stay at the top of the pranking pyramid, but you have to remember who the best really are,” Harry told them both with a smirk that worried them as they nodded quickly.  
  
“Well, go on and explore some more,” Ginny said. “Tell anyone with a Journal to pretend this door isn’t here, by the way,” she added, gesturing behind her. “There’s a reason we’re standing in front of it. We’ll show everyone tomorrow.”  
  
The others all nodded, though Hermione looked as if she wanted to ask why pretty desperately. It was with a chuckle that the three of them watched everyone beginning to enjoy the rooms. Just watching the school get along just a little bit better told them that all those hours working on The Den had been worth it. _  
_


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Harry looked around the pentagon-shaped room with a slight smile. Every single person with a Journal along with the first years was in the room for only those with a Journal right now. It was obviously going to be a tight fit in a couple of years, maybe even next year, but for the moment, they all fit in the room.

Maya and Astoria were standing by him at the green wall of Slytherin while the other leaders all stood in small groups by their own walls. They had all had a conversation just a couple of hours before to agree upon what they would ask of the first years. This was going to be a bit more formal than when the others had joined the group, but they were all hoping it would become the norm.  
  
“Okay, everyone, _quiet_!” Harry called to the entire room, and everyone fell silent as they turned to face him. “Thank you.  
  
“Now, many of you are probably wondering many things like why you’re all here and why not everyone can see this room.” Around the group, Harry saw people nodding, and he smiled gently. “The reason no one else can see this room is because only an owner of a Journal — or an ex-owner who isn’t a professor — can see this room.  
  
“As for why we’re here, well, that will become obvious in a few moments,” he finished with a grin that only the leaders and Tracey shared with him.  
  
“Around the room you’ll all see the leaders of second, third, and fourth years by their House walls,” he continued after a few moments of muttering was permitted. “We have all gathered to do something that has been due to happen for almost a week now. First years, please step towards the wall of your House. Older students, let them through to stand in front of your leaders.”  
  
Around the room, many people began to understand what was going on. Everyone in the room, including the first years, knew that the Journals were only given after enough time had passed, and it seemed that it was time to distribute them. The first years moved forward quickly once they had figured it out, all of them anxious to finally get the famed Journals.  
  
“Many of you probably expect me to say that Slytherin will go first because I’m a Slytherin, or Gryffindor to show that the two Houses can work together,” Harry said with a smirk as he saw a few guilty faces. “Well, I’m going to choose neither when I ask Susan Bones to please begin with the Hufflepuff first years.”  
  
Eyes widened around the room as Susan stepped over to the cabinet and grabbed the leader’s Journal from the top shelf before stepping towards the first years. Behind her, the other two leaders counted out enough black Journals for the others so that Susan could just pass them on.  
  
“Laura Madley, please come forward,” Susan said formally, and a young girl with light brown hair stepped forward with some confidence in her step. The fourth year looked the girl over before holding up the Journal for the first year to see.  
  
“Do you, Laura Madley, promise to uphold the traits that are Hufflepuff by being loyal and hard-working?” Susan finally asked.  
  
“Yes,” the young girl said in her soft voice that traveled around the silent room as the others listened closely.  
  
“Do you promise to not judge by House?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Do you promise to treat everyone as equals no matter what their heritage or blood?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Will you lead the Hufflepuffs of your year to the best of your ability while also accepting advice and views from your fellow Housemates and classmates?”  
  
“I will.”  
  
“Then, Laura Madley, you are now, officially, the Hufflepuff leader of your year and one of the Journal group,” Susan finished as she held out the Journal to Laura, who grasped it firmly before stepping back to the rest of the Hufflepuffs.  
  
After that all of the Hufflepuffs went the same way except without the final question as only Laura needed to promise to be a good leader. Then Padma and Terry stepped forward, taking turns to induct the Ravenclaws. The only differences were that they changed the Hufflepuff to Ravenclaw and spoke of wisdom and knowledge, beginning with Orla Quirke as the official leader.  
  
Hermione then began with the Gryffindors. She spoke of bravery, chivalry, and the ability to face their fears. Natalie began to accept the Journal to be the leader of the Gryffindors when everyone realized that the Gryffindors would have one more thing to promise.  
  
“Natalie, do you promise to not allow anything, especially old rivalries, to stop you from your other promises? Will you be sure to not let the ideas of Purebloods overcome you?”  
  
“Yes,” Natalie agreed, and she was finally allowed to accept her Journal. The other Gryffindors also had to promise the same thing. Finally, it was Harry’s turn, and he began with Graham.  
  
“Graham Pritchard, do you promise to uphold the Slytherin name by being sly in your ambitions and being the best Slytherin you can be?”  
  
“Yes,” the boy said softly but with a hint of determination in his voice that Harry saw made Maya smile off to his left.  
  
“Do you promise to not judge by House?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Do you promise to treat everyone as equals no matter what their heritage or blood?”  
  
“Yes,” he agreed with absolutely no hesitation, which surprised most of the group, especially the Slytherins, but Harry had been expecting it and just went on.  
  
“Will you lead the Slytherins of your year to the best of your ability while also accepting advice and views from your fellow Housemates and classmates?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Graham, like the Gryffindors, do you promise not to let the old rivalry with the other Houses, especially the House of the lions, overcome you? Will you ignore Pureblood tradition taught by Slytherin parents and choose your own road that won’t judge by House or Blood, even if it means disobeying your parents?”  
  
For the first time, Graham hesitated. In the House of the lions, it was easier for them to disagree with their parents as most, if not all, of them were from light families who wouldn’t mind too much once their children said that the Slytherins were kind. Unfortunately, in the House of the snakes, it was entirely different. Parents would threaten things like disowning their own child just to get said child back under their thumb. To disobey one’s parents could lead to a lot of trouble for the young Slytherins, which was why this question was so important.  
  
“Yes,” Graham finally said, and Harry realized he had looked at his sister momentarily. Maya must have given him a sign that she would help him no matter what.  
  
“Then, Graham Pritchard, you are now the leader of the Slytherins in your year. Well done,” he added quietly as he handed the Journal to the boy, opening it slightly so that he would open it before everyone left.  
  
Once Graham was done, the other Slytherins all agreed. It seemed Tracey’s thoughts had been right, though Blaise, Draco, Daphne, and Theo had helped as well, when it came down to the Slytherins. If one was willing to agree to the final question, they would all agree, especially if the person was their leader.  
  
“The next time we do this, it will be the Ravenclaws who will begin, followed by Gryffindor, and Slytherin will be the ones in my seventh year,” Harry told the whole room after he silenced it by raising his arms. “After my year leaves, it will be up to the seventh year leaders to do this job, but the five of us will handle it until then. I just hope you realize that none of us are trying to be biased about any of this.  
  
“Now, you may all come into this room to have an area to yourselves to hang out in if you wish. Speak to Tracey, Ginny, or myself if you wish for us to get furniture in here, but please realize that there will be no furniture in this room — besides the cabinets that only a leader could touch — during meetings as there won’t be enough room for anything. Please, _do not touch the cabinets_! There _will_ be consequences if you do, and I don’t think any of you want to find out what they are.  
  
“Feel free to use this room, but no one can even see it unless they own a Journal or are coming in here to receive one like the first years here today. Now, go enjoy your Saturday!”  
  
Most of the group left the room, though Harry knew many were just going into the rest of The Den to enjoy it. Only those with colored Journals, Graham, and Natalie were left. The two first years had their Journals open to a note Harry had put into them asking for them to stay behind after the initiation.  
  
“You asked for us to stay behind?” Natalie asked for them both.  
  
“Actually, it was more all three of us, though Harry was the one to pass on the message,” Ginny told the younger Gryffindor with a smile as she and Tracey went to stand by Harry.  
  
“Why?” Graham asked with narrowed eyes as he saw the confused looks on everyone else’s faces, including his sister’s.  
  
“Because we wanted to offer you your real Journals,” Harry told the boy, who immediately brightened as the others realized what was going on.  
  
“The only reason you got the black ones was so that the others didn’t feel bad during the whole ceremony,” Ginny said. “They’ll see the Journals and ask, but you can just tell them that you’ve known Harry for a while so he made you special Journals, which is true. Plus, you can tell them that Harry didn’t give them to you earlier so that none of your friends felt bad as that isn’t the point of these Journals.”  
  
Both first years nodded a bit eagerly as Tracey reached into her bag and pulled out two Journals. One was a metallic red while the other was a metallic blue. She then handed Natalie the red and Graham the blue. Both were outlined the in leader lining, and their names appeared on the back on the new Journals as they disappeared from the black Journals.  
  
“Maya, you should teach your brother and his friend about the secrets of the Journals they now have,” Harry suggested as he took the black Journals and returned them to the shelves they belonged in.  
  
“Thank you so much!” the two kids exclaimed as they hugged the trio quickly. Not even the blue was upsetting Graham, probably because he had realized Maya had beaten him to the color.  
  
Both of them opened the Journals and began using them with Maya instructing them, the rest of the group smiling as they watched the three leave the room happily.

…

“ _You have not been to visit me since the first day of your classes,_ ” Sebae hissed to Harry, Ginny, and Ankh as they settled down on her coils in the Chamber. Torches flamed around the room, illuminating the room, which Harry and Ginny had cleaned with spells. In fact, the Chamber was much cleaner and more like how the school looked, though the design was slightly different .  
  
“ _We’re sorry, Sebae, but we’ve been busy,_ ” Harry replied, feeling slightly ashamed as he and Ginny had visited her every two weeks the year before, but hadn’t been to see her except the once that month.  
  
“ _The two of us and Tracey came up with an idea,_ ” Ginny elaborated, knowing that she and Harry had told the great Basilisk about Tracey and the others before. “ _We were helping to create a bunch of rooms for the students to relax in no matter what their House._ ”  
  
“ _Something that Salazar and the other three would approve of_?” Sebae asked, her head rising off the ground in interest as her yellow eyes locked onto the two teens.  
  
“ _Very much so, Sebae,_ ” Harry told her with a smile. “ _They’d love it, most likely. It allows the Houses to interact together in a place that’s neutral and where students would be willing to be._ ”  
  
“ _I am glad, then,_ ” she hissed, and Harry knew that Sebae would be smiling if she could. The one thing she wanted of the school was for the fighting to stop; she didn’t like the separation, prejudice, and bias Hogwarts now contained.  
  
“ _We’ll try to get down here more often now that the rooms are done,_ ” Ginny added, “ _but the Triwizard Tournament is taking place this year and may take up time here and there._ ”  
  
“ _What is this_ Tournament? _I have not heard of it before,_ ” Sebae hissed, her confusion showing in her tone.  
  
“ _Three schools — Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang — compete in a tournament, one person from each school, in three tasks to see who wins. The other two are from the Continent. The only other thing we know about them is that Beauxbatons is French. Otherwise, most of the Tournament is a mystery to the students,_ ” Harry explained.  
  
“ _Very different from the time of Salazar, but I can see why it is happening,_ ” Sebae said quietly before poking both of the children with her nose gently. “ _I hope you both enjoy watching it as you should not enter it. Neither of you has the experience_.”  
  
“ _Everyone has been saying that they think I’m going to enter, but I didn’t even think about it until they brought it up,_ ” Harry grumbled. Ginny giggled as Sebae did a snake’s version of a laugh. Ankh licked Harry’s cheek to show his amusement.  
  
“ _Your friends know you won’t enter, and that’s the main thing,_ ” Ginny reminded him softly. “ _Besides, you’ve said it enough times in the Journals when we’re all talking in them that everyone knows you aren’t going to enter if they have a Journal._ ”  
  
Harry snorted but said nothing as it was the truth.  
  
After that the conversation turned to other things like how their friends were doing and the relationships between the Houses, plus plans for when the other schools got there. It was a very nice way to end the day, in Harry’s opinion.

…

Harry looked up, a bit startled, as Demelza Robins, the Gryffindor leader of second year, sat down across from him at lunch. She glanced behind her and to her right at a table with her friends and the other three leaders. Astoria was grinning mischievously, making Harry raise an eyebrow at her, but her grin only grew as she shook her head and pointed at Demelza.  
  
“Something up, Demelza?” he asked curiously, turning back to the nervous girl.  
  
“The others are making me tell you something because it was my idea in the first place,” she grumbled, and Harry laughed. The Gryffindor looked up at him in surprise.  
  
“You don’t know how many times I’ve had that one pulled on me,” he said, and she smiled. “Now, why don’t you tell me your idea?”  
  
“Well, my friends and I were talking about how the Tournament will be fun to watch and all, but there’s nothing going on except for the three Tasks, and even then only the three champions will be competing in those. What are the rest of us going to do during the year to entertain ourselves, especially with Quidditch cancelled?”  
  
Harry looked at her, his eyes widening. Around him, Harry’s closest friends were staring at Demelza in shock. This was something none of them had thought about, but they all knew it was quite true.  
  
“Let me guess,” Harry said with a smile as his shock wore off, “you have an idea.” The girl nodded with a smile, much more relaxed than she had been.  
  
“Why can’t we have an unofficial Quidditch tournament this year with more than just three matches per House? Also, why not have other games like races, obstacle courses, swimming, running, and other things for those who aren’t on the House teams?” she suggested, and around Harry, his friends shared looks and began whispering as they all thought it over.  
  
“Why not add in football and other Muggle sports as well?” Hermione suddenly suggested, and all around the table, his friends began suggesting other things.  
  
Chess and Gobstone tournaments were suggested along with a pranking war. Some suggested duels and other competitions that had magic involved.  
  
“Demelza,” Harry stated as the two of them stared around at the others in a bit of a shock, and she looked up at him. “I believe you should write all of this down and then get your revenge on your lovely friends over there.”  
  
“How do I get revenge?” she asked as she pulled out spare parchment and a pencil from her bag to begin writing a list of suggestions and ideas from both of their friends.  
  
It had actually become a habit of most students to use pencils on anything but homework, which was even beginning to occur in the older years as they realized how much easier they were. The Slytherins had yet to admit it, but they were impressed by what the Muggles had come up with. Harry wouldn’t be surprised if pens and pencils were used in Hogwarts as well as paper instead of parchment within the next decade or two.  
  
“Well, you see, when your friends force you to talk to someone instead of them, you drag them along the next time you talk to someone and make them talk just as much as you,” he told her with a smirk that she returned.  
  
“I get it,” she said as she looked over at her friends, smirk still on her face. Even Astoria looked worried once they saw that look, but all Harry did was smirk when she turned to him.  
  
“Go tell McGonagall you need to talk to the Headmaster with all the Heads of House there and she’ll set up a meeting,” Harry suggested. “If she asks why, just tell her that you brought an idea to me that I thought would interest them just as much as The Den did.”  
  
“Thanks, Harry,” Demelza said gratefully as she finished writing the list and gave him a smile before putting the stuff away and rushing up to the Head Table and her Head of House.  
  
He watched as the two spoke for a few moments before McGonagall whispered in Dumbledore’s ear and he nodded. The professor then told Demelza something, and she grinned before heading over to her friends. The three leaders groaned so loud that Harry’s ears picked it up even in the loud Great Hall, though his sensitive hearing probably helped.  
  
Laughing quietly, Harry went back to his meal. Around him, his friends were talking excitedly about the chance of having tournaments and other things, especially the Gryffindors.  
  
If Demelza succeeded, Hogwarts was in for an interesting year all around.

…

“They said yes!” Demelza exclaimed the next day at dinner as she and the other three second year leaders threw themselves down around Harry. Tracey and Ginny were finishing up some homework that he had already completed, so they weren’t there yet.  
  
“We told them the ideas everyone had, and even Snape was looking a bit excited,” Astoria added with a grin that Harry returned. The other students turned to stare at Snape as he entered the Great Hall, shocked looks on their faces.  
  
“Twenty-five points to each of us for the idea,” Kyle Summerby of Hufflepuff added with a grin.  
  
“Nicely done you guys,” Harry congratulated them. “Do you know when they’ll start?”  
  
“Dumbledore mentioned beginning after the champions were chosen for the Tournament,” Robert Chambers of Ravenclaw stated. “They were still talking when we left,” he added with a sheepish grin.  
  
“We’ll make a Slytherin of him yet,” Harry whispered to Astoria audibly, making Robert blush and Astoria grin. “Anyway, this will be excellent. Let everyone know tonight on the Journals; I’ll make a conversation for you.”  
  
“Sure!” Astoria said happily as she nudged Demelza. “Demelza can do it.”  
  
“How about Robert or Kyle does it, as they’re less known around the other years?” Daphne suggested from beside her sister, and that was when Harry remembered others were at the table and probably listening to the entire conversation.  
  
“Or both,” Blaise added, and all three boys shared a look.  
  
“I don’t really care who does it,” Harry said with a shrug. “I’m just going to open the conversation for them so that they can tell the others.”  
  
“They’re all going to enjoy this,” Susan remarked from down the table a bit, and everyone else nodded in agreement as that was the general consensus of the group.  
  
“Will The Den be used for the game tournaments?” Hermione asked. “If it is, we can add Muggle games to the list of ideas because we have plenty of all of them.”  
  
“It’s the perfect place, really,” Harry said, “but it doesn’t really matter as the room isn’t mine. The whole thing belongs to the students now.”  
  
“What do you mean?” Padma asked after a moment, asking the question Harry knew would be coming after that statement.  
  
“That we made the room for everyone, not for us or the teachers,” Ginny said from behind him as she laid a hand on his shoulder.  
  
“It was one of the most debated topics when we were discussing it with the Headmaster after construction began and he had gotten a chance to think it all over a bit more,” Tracey agreed from beside the redhead.  
  
“You see, he wanted to know who owned The Den, and the three of us already knew what we wanted,” Harry said without even turning around to look at the girls even though everyone else had looked up at them in surprise. “The Den is a place for students, not teachers. Anything that happens in those rooms has to be agreed to by the students, not the teachers. If we want an event to take place in those rooms, the teachers can’t do anything about it unless it has to do with a duel or fighting in some form. The only thing they had control of in those rooms is discipline if someone breaks the rules.”  
  
“Otherwise, if we hold a tournament in those rooms, all the teachers can do is come to watch,” Ginny finished with a grin.  
  
“Basically, go ahead and use the rooms,” Harry said. “Just make sure everyone knows about the events at least two weeks in advance.”  
  
“Bloody brilliant,” Blaise muttered, and Daphne elbowed him hard, making him gasp before rubbing his stomach.  
  
Harry just laughed as the second year leaders left, allowing Ginny and Tracey to take their seats as talk went back to the games they wanted to play when everything started.

…

“Hey, Daphe, can I see your Journal?” Harry asked as he and Tracey sat down on either side of her in the Common Room. She looked up at him in surprise, blinking.  
  
“Why?” she asked curiously while pulling out the deep purple book from her robe pocket.  
  
“Because Tracey and I want to do something to it,” he sighed, distracting their friend as Tracey grabbed the Journal.  
  
“Hey! Give that back!” Daphne exclaimed, jumping up after Tracey to try and grab the book that Tracey tossed to Harry.  
  
Harry grabbed the Journal out of the air and tore out of the Common Room and towards the Room of Requirement, asking for a room only Tracey and Ginny could get in, and only if they were alone. Once it appeared, he rushed inside of it and heard the door locking behind him just as Daphne turned the corner into the hall.  
  
Sighing in relief, Harry sat down at the table provided and reached into his bag to pull out a pile of Journals from it. By the time Tracey had come in, Harry had all of them lined up in front of him, two other books open on the table in front of him with a third, normal journal next to them.  
  
Tracey pulled the lavender, purple, metallic blue, metallic red, yellow, sky blue, bronze, and magenta Journals to herself. Harry kept the gold, scarlet, brown, white, turquoise, metallic green, silver, gray, and deep purple for himself.  
  
Working quickly together, they began casting spells on each Journal, setting up only half the spells on each before swapping so that the other half could be added. An hour after entering the room, they were packed up and leaving the room. When they opened the door they saw that each and every one of their friends with colored Journals was waiting for them. Ginny was trying desperately not to laugh.  
  
“Can we have our Journals back?” Hermione demanded.  
  
Smiling only slightly sheepishly, Harry pulled them out and laid them out on the floor. Each friend walked up and collected their own Journal while Harry, Tracey, and Ginny watched, all with some amusement. Their fear of a prank was hilarious as the anxiousness was showing on their faces.  
  
“Man, it’s like you’ve all forgotten our promise from about the second week of school with how you’re all acting,” Harry said innocently as Ginny began to shake with her hand over her mouth to muffle her almost-silent giggles at the situation.  
  
“Promise?” Justin asked in surprise, and Harry nodded.  
  
“We promised to add the Map to your Journals, didn’t we?” Tracey asked innocently, and eyes widened as the group suddenly flung open their Journals and said the phrase to activate the Map.  
  
Within minutes everyone was thanking the three, all anger forgotten as they realized they now had Marauder’s Maps as part of their Journals.  
  
“The reason we didn’t do it before was because The Den was being constructed at the time, and we didn’t exactly want you all to find out about it before it was done,” Harry said to the group, making many blink. “That was the surprise we were talking about — you know, the one you would all love.”  
  
“Merlin, you’ve been planning this for a while, haven’t you?” Neville muttered to the group, and the trio nodded with smiles.  
  
“Well, thanks,” Terry said, and the others agreed, some with only nods and some with words.  
  
“Enjoy,” Harry told them instead of anything else, knowing they all would. _  
_


	14. Chapter Fourteen

The last three weeks leading up to the end of October and the arrival of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang passed by without much happening.

Students talked about both The Den and the idea of the competitions that were planned. Moody was a hit outside of Slytherin House, with only a few in the House of snakes enjoying him as he treated most like scum because of either their House, actions, or parents. The Tournament was also a hot topic for discussion among many students, centering mainly on whom the champion of Hogwarts would be and what the three tasks would be.

Truthfully, the only thing of note in Harry’s life other than Quidditch practice for the games was the day he and the twins were called to Dumbledore’s office and found all of the Heads of House waiting for them as well. It had shocked all three of them to the core to be asked if they wanted to put on a show for the other schools.

“You’re telling us that you’re willing to let us do something to the school without punishment?” Harry had asked, just to be sure.

“No, we’re telling you that you’re allowed to do something like at the End of Term feast last year when the other schools arrive,” Professor McGonagall had stated in a voice that said not to disobey her.

The three boys had told their professors that they would decide on their own, but if a show occurred, they couldn’t punish any of them as long as it didn’t affect the people of Hogwarts, which was agreed to. Three weeks were then spent in the library as the two Gryffindors and a Slytherin worked to find the charms, potions, and other spells for the idea they had come up with within an hour of planning.

On Thursday the 30th of October, classes ended early, and they were to have no classes the next day so that the students could interact between the different schools.

Professor Snape led the Slytherins out of the castle, but Harry and those with Journals all got out there and then began to mix up by year, ignoring the looks the professors gave them for it. They just wanted to prove that House didn’t mean a thing to them, and it made them proud that a few of the fifth and sixth years were intermixing as well, even a few seventh years joining in on the fun.

It was a cold, clear evening; dusk was falling and a pale, transparent-looking moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest. Nothing besides the students was moving in the windless world, and Harry looked around at the beauty that was Hogwarts with a smile.

Around him, students whispered back and forth about how they thought the other schools would be arriving while others just shivered. Smiling a bit, Harry muttered a warming charm on those closest to him, earning grateful smiles in return.

And then Dumbledore called out from the back row where he stood with the other teachers - "Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"

"Where?" many students said eagerly, all looking in different directions.

"There!" a sixth year yelled, pointing over the forest.

Something large, much larger than a broomstick - or, indeed, a hundred broomsticks - was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time.

"It's a dragon!" one of the Hufflepuff, Muggle-born first years shrieked, losing her head completely.

"Don't be stupid… it's a flying house!" Dennis Creevey, a first year Gryffindor, said.

Dennis's guess was closer…

As the gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the lights shining from the castle windows hit it, they saw a gigantic, powder blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring toward them, pulled through the air by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant.

The front three rows of students drew backward as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed - then, with an almighty crash that made Neville jump backward onto a Slytherin fifth year's foot, the horses' hooves, larger than dinner plates, hit the ground. A second later, the carriage landed too, bouncing upon its vast wheels, while the golden horses tossed their enormous heads and rolled large, fiery red eyes.

Harry just had time to see that the door of the carriage bore a coat of arms (two crossed, golden wands, each emitting three stars) before it opened. A boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully. Then Harry saw a shining, high-heeled black shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage - a shoe the size of a child's sled - followed, almost immediately, by the largest woman he had ever seen in his life. The size of the carriage, and of the horses, was immediately explained. A few people gasped.

Harry had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in his life, and that was Hagrid; he doubted whether there was an inch difference in their heights. Yet somehow - maybe simply because he was used to Hagrid - this woman (now at the foot of the steps, and looking around at the waiting, wide-eyed crowd) seemed even more unnaturally large. As she stepped into the light flooding from the entrance hall, she was revealed to have a handsome, olive-skinned face; large, black, liquid-looking eyes; and a rather beaky nose. Her hair was drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.

Harry noticed that about a dozen boys and girls, all, by the look of them, in their late teens, had emerged from the carriage and were now standing behind the large woman. They were shivering, which was unsurprising, given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls around their heads.

Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many of them standing on tiptoe, the better to look at this woman.

Her face relaxed into a gracious smile and she walked forward toward Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, had barely to bend to kiss it.

"My dear Madame Maxime," he said. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr," Madame Maxime said in a deep voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"

"In excellent form, I thank you," Dumbledore said.

"My pupils," Madame Maxime said, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her.

From what Harry could see of them (they were standing in Madame Maxime's enormous shadow), they were staring up at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.

"'As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.

"He should be here any moment," Dumbledore said. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?"

"Warm up, I think," Madame Maxime said. "But ze 'orses -"

"Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them," Dumbledore said, "the moment he has returned from dealing with a slight situation that has arisen with some of his other - er - charges."

"My steeds require - er - forceful 'andling," Madame Maxime said, looking as though she doubted whether any Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts could be up to the job.

"Zey are very strong…"

"I assure you that Hagrid will be well up to the job," Dumbledore said, smiling.

"Very well," Madame Maxime said, bowing slightly. "Will you please inform zis 'Agrid zat ze 'orses drink only single-malt whiskey?"

"It will be attended to," Dumbledore said, also bowing.

"Come," Madame Maxime said imperiously to her students, and the Hogwarts crowd parted to allow her and her students to pass up the stone steps .

“How long until Durmstrang gets here, do you think?” Ginny whispered in Harry’s ear, and he shrugged while catching the twins’ eyes with a slight smirk. It was almost time to use their prank.

Most people were gazing hopefully up at the sky as they waited for Durmstrang to arrive.

For a few minutes, the silence was broken only by Madame Maxime's huge horses snorting and stamping. Harry listened as he heard something; a loud and oddly eerie noise was drifting toward them from out of the darkness: a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed.

"The lake!" Lee Jordan yelled, pointing down at it. "Look at the lake!"

From their position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, they had a clear view of the smooth black surface of the water - except that the surface was suddenly not smooth at all. Some disturbance was taking place deep in the center; great bubbles were forming on the surface, waves were now washing over the muddy banks - and then, out in the very middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared, as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake's floor… What seemed to be a long, black pole began to rise slowly out of the heart of the whirlpool… and then Harry saw the rigging…

Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and the dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes.

Finally, with a great sloshing noise, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to glide toward the bank. A few moments later, they heard the splash of an anchor being thrown down in the shallows, and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank.

People were disembarking; they could see their silhouettes passing the lights in the ship's portholes. All of them, Harry noticed, seemed to be built along the lines of Crabbe and Goyle… but then, as they drew nearer, walking up the lawns into the light streaming from the entrance hall, he saw that their bulk was really due to the fact that they were wearing cloaks of some kind of shaggy, matted fur. But the man who was leading them up to the castle was wearing furs of a different sort: sleek and silver, like his hair.

"Dumbledore!" he called heartily as he walked up the slope. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore replied. Karkaroff had a fruity, unctuous voice; when he stepped into the light pouring from the front doors of the castle they saw that he was tall and thin like Dumbledore, but his silver hair was short, and his goatee (finishing in a small curl) did not entirely hide his rather weak chin. When he reached Dumbledore, he shook hands with both of his own.

"Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle and smiling; his teeth were rather yellow, and Harry noticed that his smile did not extend to his eyes, which remained cold and shrewd. "How good it is to be here, how good… Viktor, come along, into the warmth… you don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold…"

Karkaroff beckoned forward one of his students. As the boy passed, Harry caught a glimpse of a prominent curved nose and thick black eyebrows.

Harry raised an eyebrow as Theo said that it was Viktor Krum he was looking at. He hadn’t known that the Seeker was still at school, but it would certainly make the year interesting.

“You should challenge him to a game to see who can catch the Snitch first,” Blaise told him as Dumbledore led the students into the Hall, which was set up with the House tables only because they wanted the Hall to look more formal for the schools, though it would back to the new normal the next morning.

“That’s right!” Theo exclaimed. “You were following it during the Cup, so it would be an amazing thing to watch.”

Before Harry could say anything, Krum himself settled himself down between Harry’s friends and Draco’s, Harry on one side of him with Draco on the other. The other Durmstrang students sat themselves down along the Slytherin table while the Beauxbatons took over the Ravenclaw table.

The Durmstrang students pulled off their heavy furs and looked up at the starry black ceiling with expressions of interest; a couple of them were picking up the golden plates and goblets and examining them, apparently impressed. Looking over at the Beauxbatons students, Harry saw that most of them were cold as none of them had cloaks; a few were still clutching shawls and scarves to their heads.

Up at the staff table, Filch, the caretaker, was adding chairs. He was wearing his moldy old tailcoat in honor of the occasion. Harry was surprised to see that he added four chairs, two on either side of Dumbledore's.

When all the students had entered the Hall and settled down at their House tables, the staff entered, filing up to the top table and taking their seats. Last in line were Professor Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime. When their headmistress appeared, the pupils from Beauxbatons leapt to their feet. A few of the Hogwarts students laughed.

The Beauxbatons party appeared quite unembarrassed, however, and did not resume their seats until Madame Maxime had sat down on Dumbledore's left-hand side. Dumbledore remained standing, and a silence fell over the Great Hall.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and - most particularly - guests," Dumbledore said, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

One of the Beauxbatons girls still clutching a muffler around her head gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh. A few Hogwarts students glared at her, but one look from Madam Maxime made the girl look at the table.

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," Dumbledore said. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

He sat down, and Harry saw Karkaroff lean forward at once and engage him in conversation.

The plates in front of them filled with food as usual. The house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them than Harry had ever seen, including several that were definitely foreign.

“I’m Harry Potter,” Harry said to Krum, holding out his right hand for him to shake as he introduced himself.

“Viktor Krum,” he said in reply, grasping the hand firmly and shaking it. “I haff heard of you.”

“A lot of people have,” Harry admitted with a light chuckle that Krum returned. “You know the feeling, I gather.”

“Of course,” he said. Just then, Theo coughed to catch Harry’s attention.

“Oh, these are my friends, Theo, Blaise, Daphne, and Tracey.” Draco coughed as well. “Oh, and I can’t forget Draco on your other side, though he’s more an ally than a friend.”

“Nice to meet you,” Krum said with a nod that they all returned.

“We were actually just talking about having you and Harry here play some Quidditch against each other,” Theo said as Harry blushed slightly and turned to fill his plate, embarrassed as he knew Theo was going to brag in a moment.

“Oh?” Krum asked curiously.

“At the Cup, Harry was tracking the Snitch for most of the match,” Theo said in his bragging tone. “He’s the Seeker on the Slytherin team and the best in the school.”

“Is this true?” he asked, turning to Harry with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Harry admitted after swallowing, though he was hesitant to do so.

“I vant to play you, then,” Krum stated. “Anyone who can follow the Snitch that vell is a good Seeker. It vill be nice to be challenged for once in a game. Please, allow me to do this.”

“Sure,” Harry finally agreed. “Maybe this weekend?”

“I vill meet you on the Pitch after lunch on Sunday,” Krum said, finalizing the date. “You may tell others so they can vatch. I know they vill want to, especially because ve are both famous.”

“Go ahead, Theo,” Harry sighed, knowing Theo would do it anyway, so it was better to give him permission.

“Yes!” he cheered, actually punching the air in his happiness. Everyone else laughed, Krum included, at his actions.

“Who’s expected to be the champion at Durmstrang?” Daphne asked Viktor as everyone else resumed eating. Her question caught everyone’s attention, though.

“I am the expected for Durmstrang,” he replied. “It is just expected by all, for some reason.”

Harry could tell he was joking, but a few of the others were a bit shocked before Krum smiled, and everyone laughed. From then on, the conversation went a lot more smoothly as they all joked and got to know one another. It was enjoyable getting to know the real Viktor Krum, not the Quidditch star that everyone else wanted to know. Suddenly, Harry had a thought.

“Hey, Viktor, we have this set of rooms on the third floor, and I was wondering if you wanted to bring some of your friends to it tomorrow so that you all can get to know the Hogwarts students,” he said.

“Sure,” Viktor agreed. “It vill be fun for us to get to know you all. Vhere are these rooms?” By the time desert was over, Viktor knew where to go.

Once the food disappeared, Harry and the twins glanced at one another and nodded. It was up to Harry to activate the show as he was the only one who knew the charm, seeing as it was among the ones he and the girls had used over the summer.

Waving his wand a little after taking it from his holster, Harry muttered so quietly under his breath that not even Tracey, who was right next to him, realized what he was doing.

A bang erupted above everyone, just under the ceiling of the Great Hall. From the smoke that was slowly dispersing dropped a large red lion that spun around so that all of the House tables could see it. Then a large, emerald green snake dropped and moved so that its head was visible to the entire Hall as it, too, looked around. Then came the black badger, which landed on top of the lion and spun around on its head, drawing a few laughs. Then a royal blue eagle flew out of the smoke and dove down the middle of each of the House tables, ending with the Head Table before landing on the back of the lion, which the snake was now surrounding.

With another bang, the animals disappeared in a flash of smoke just as the last batch disappeared, and from within the smoke rose a black tapestry of the Hogwarts crest. It flew towards the doors of the Great Hall and attached itself to the wall above the door. When the smoke disappeared, it was obvious that the animals were gone and the show finished.

Everyone began clapping, including those from the other schools. Those in Slytherin who were in the Journal group and all of the Gryffindors were cheering harder than the rest as they all could guess who had done the prank.

At the urging of their friends and after agreeing silently, the twins and Harry stood up and moved to meet at the Head Table, bowing to each other. Then they bowed to the Heads of Houses before bowing to the Ministry officials Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman, followed by a bow to each of the Heads of the schools, finishing with a bow to each House table.

The cheering only grew louder at their antics, making Harry’s grin grow. When they finally sat down again, Dumbledore stood up.

“Thank you, boys, for the entertainment and the lovely show of Hogwarts spirit,” he said, eyes twinkling in amusement as he glanced at all three of them. “A well done performance. Now, the moment has come. The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation" - there was a smattering of polite applause - "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

There was a much louder round of applause for Bagman than for Crouch, perhaps because of his fame as a Beater, or simply because he looked so much more likable. He acknowledged it with a jovial wave of his hand. Bartemius Crouch did not smile or wave when his name was announced. Remembering him in his neat suit at the Quidditch World Cup, Harry thought he looked strange in wizard's robes. His toothbrush mustache and severe parting looked very odd next to Dumbledore's long white hair and beard.

"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore continued, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."

At the mention of the word "champions," the attentiveness of the listening students seemed to sharpen.

Dumbledore had obviously noticed their sudden stillness, for he smiled as he said, "The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch."

Filch, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the Hall, now approached Dumbledore carrying a great wooden chest encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely old. A murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students; Dennis Creevey actually stood on his chair to see it properly, but, being so tiny, his head hardly rose above anyone else's.

"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman," Dumbledore said as Filch placed the chest carefully on the table before him, "and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways… their magical prowess - their daring - their powers of deduction - and, of course, their ability to cope with danger."

At this last word, the Hall was filled with a silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing.

"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament," Dumbledore went on calmly, "one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Dumbledore now took out his wand and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. The lid creaked slowly open. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames. Dumbledore closed the casket and placed the goblet carefully on top of it, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the Hall.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," Dumbledore said. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete.

"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation," Dumbledore said, "I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the Entrance Hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line.

"Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the Goblet . Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all."

Viktor was immediately grabbed by Karkaroff as Harry and the other Slytherins got up and left. In front of them, he was taking care of his star student while the Weasley twins were talking about an aging potion to get past the Age Line. Shaking their heads, Harry and his friends went down to the Common Room, ready to head to bed for the night as it had been a long day.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

“Anyone put their name in?” Harry asked Ginny as he entered the Entrance Hall, which was now housing the Goblet of Fire. It had been placed in the center of the hall on the stool that normally bore the Sorting Hat. A thin golden line had been traced on the floor, forming a circle ten feet around it in every direction.

“Not that I’ve been here for,” she replied as she munched on some toast, just as many other students were.  
  
Nodding, Harry slipped into the Great Hall and grabbed a quick bite of porridge before grabbing some orange juice. Then he brought some toast back out into the Entrance Hall with him just as Karkaroff led the Durmstrang students into it. Viktor nodded at Harry before entering the Age Line and throwing his slip of folded paper into the Goblet.  
  
After a while, it got a bit boring just watching with Ginny, so they pulled out their Journals and messed around with the Maps. They took turns giving clues to a specific dot to look for, and it was interesting as there were so many different dots that it could be.  
  
Finally, just before Harry was going to suggest going to The Den, the twins came hurrying down the stairs with Lee Jordan.  
  
“Just done it,” Fred whispered to the pair, glancing around at the other students in the Hall, which now included some of Harry’s Slytherin friends as they finally woke up and left the dungeons. “The Aging Potion,” he added at their confused looks.  
  
“One drop each,” George said as he rubbed his hands together. “We only need to be a few months older.”  
  
"We're going to split the thousand Galleons between the three of us if one of us wins," Lee said, grinning broadly.  
  
Instead of speaking his mind, Harry let the three of them head over to the Goblet. Ginny, though, leaned close to his ear.  
  
“You do know that’s not going to work, right?” she whispered, and he nodded with a smirk. “Do they know?” she asked, still whispering.  
  
“They’re hoping it’s not true,” he replied just as quietly, and she snickered.  
  
"Ready?" Fred said to the other two, quivering with excitement. "C'mon, then - I'll go first -"  
  
Harry watched, fascinated, as Fred pulled a slip of parchment out of his pocket bearing the words Fred Weasley - Hogwarts. Fred walked right up to the edge of the line and stood there, rocking on his toes like a diver preparing for a fifty-foot drop. Then, with the eyes of every person in the entrance hall upon him, he took a great breath and stepped over the line.  
  
For a split second Harry thought it had worked - George certainly thought so, for he let out a yell of triumph and leapt after Fred - but next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been thrown by an invisible shot-putter. They landed painfully, ten feet away on the cold stone floor, and to add insult to injury, there was a loud popping noise, and both of them sprouted identical long white beards.  
  
The Entrance Hall rang with laughter. Even Fred and George joined in, once they had gotten to their feet and taken a good look at each other's beards.  
  
"I did warn you," a deep, amused voice said, and everyone turned to see Professor Dumbledore coming out of the Great Hall. He surveyed Fred and George, his eyes twinkling. "I suggest you both go up to Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to Miss Fawcett, of Ravenclaw, and Mr. Summers, of Hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours."  
  
Fred and George set off for the hospital wing, accompanied by Lee, who was howling with laughter.  
  
“Who’s put their names in?” Tracey asked as she stole a piece of toast from the plate Harry had put under a heating charm just for his friends.  
  
“Durmstrang, Warrington, Cedric, and I believe that’s Angelina right now,” Harry replied, nodding in Angelina’s direction as she walked right up to the Goblet and put the slip of paper in.  
  
“Good luck, Angelina!” he called, and she smiled in his direction, giving a little wave of acknowledgement.  
  
“Haven’t tried to put your own name in yet?” Draco asked, his eyes shining in amusement.  
  
“I’m surprised you haven’t tried yet, Draco,” Harry retorted with a smirk, and that shut him up quickly.  
  
After that, the group went outside to enjoy some of the sunshine before heading up to The Den.

…

“Harry!” Viktor called as he led most of the Durmstrang students into The Den. Harry smiled as he stood up and turned to see them all.  
  
“Viktor! Come in, come in, all of you,” he said, walking over to them and gesturing towards some of the couches.  
  
“Guys!” he then called to the rest of The Den. “These are the Durmstrang students. Please treat them like you would any other student. That includes no harassing Viktor for those of you girls all eyeing him!” he added with a grin. “Please talk with them and get to know them. They’ll be here all year, so it will be comfortable if we’re all friendly and getting along.”  
  
After that, Harry sat down and some of the older students came over and dragged groups of the Durmstrang students away to meet the rest of the people in the room. Viktor smiled at Harry as the girls left him alone.  
  
“They’re afraid of me pranking them again,” he told Viktor with a wink and a grin as he spotted his new friend looking around at the girls in amazement.  
  
“Yes, I vas going to ask about that,” Viktor said. “That show, it vas you and the two redheads?” Harry nodded. “That vas amazing spellvork. My friends vere just as amazed by it. Many of us cannot do that, and ve are the highest level in the school.”  
  
“The twins are willing to do anything for a prank, even enter the library and do research,” Harry said with a grin. “Nothing can hold them back when it’s for a prank, and I’ve got a bit more power than most. Plus, I’ve been working on higher level spells since first year.”  
  
“Very amazing, it is,” Viktor complimented, and Harry blushed. “Are you going to invite the French as vell — to this room, I mean?”  
  
“Once I talk to them, unless one of my friends didn’t already invite them,” Harry replied with a grin as the two of them watched their friends interacting with the students from the other school. Not even Tracey was on the couch anymore as she chatting with the Durmstrang kids.  
  
As if their words brought them, Padma and Terry led the French students in, leading a blond girl over to Harry and Viktor after gesturing for the others to go meet some new people. The Beauxbatons party began talking to both Durmstrang and Hogwarts students.  
  
“Fleur, this is Harry Potter,” Padma introduced.  
  
“Harry, this is Fleur Delacour,” Terry finished the introductions.  
  
“It’s nice to meet you, Fleur,” Harry said as he held out his hand. When she shook it, he pulled it to his lips and kissed the back of her hand, making her giggle slightly and blush. “This is Viktor Krum of Durmstrang,” he added to introduce the Quidditch star.  
  
“It is very nice to meet you,” Viktor said, mimicking Harry in kissing her hand.  
  
“Eet ees nice to meet you both,” Fleur agreed in her accented English, a smile on her lips. “What ees zese place?” she then asked, looking around the room. Harry glared at his friends, but they blushed and looked at the floor.  
  
“We call it The Den, which is another name for a living room or drawing room,” Harry explained to both foreigners. “It’s an American term. Anyway, it’s a place for all of the Houses at Hogwarts to relax in, study in, and just do anything in without having to separate from friends of other Houses or use the library. We all agreed that the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang could use it while they were here, so we began talking to you so that you’d show the others. Think of this as a place to intermix with the other schools.”  
  
“It is vell made,” Viktor said as he looked around the room again.  
  
“Thanks,” Tracey said, coming up behind Harry, though she didn’t startle him as she did it often with her grace from being a cat. “Harry, Ginny, a friend of ours in Gryffindor with the red hair over there, and I had help from the teachers to make the rooms, but we decorated them.”  
  
“Eet ees amazing to see,” Fleur agreed with Viktor as she, too, looked around. “Good furneeture and taste. Ze colors work well with how ‘ou made zis room.”  
  
“We appreciate it,” Harry told the French girl, who smiled at him, drawing the attention of many boys in the room, Harry noticed, Viktor not included.  
  
“Eenteresting,” Fleur murmured quietly as she looked at Harry with a curious look in her eyes that made no sense to him.  
  
“Are you…?” Tracey began to ask, and Fleur nodded. Harry turned to look at his friend with a confused look on his face, but she just shook her head and gave him a look that meant _later_. “And he isn’t…?”  
  
“’E ees not,” Fleur agreed. Tracey’s eyes widened as Harry was still watching her.  
  
“Wow,” she murmured quietly.  
  
“How about we talk about our schools a bit,” Harry suggested as he realized he wasn’t going to get anything out of the two girls.  
  
“Oh, Beauxbatons ees amazeeng, eeseceeally at Christmas,” Fleur began with a happy look on her face, so Harry settled in to listen, Tracey moving around to sit next to him .

…

“Okay, what was that about earlier?” Harry asked as he and Tracey headed down to the Great Hall for lunch. “With Fleur, I mean.”  
  
“She’s part-Veela, Harry,” Tracey sighed, and Harry stopped, staring at her slightly.  
  
“What?” he gasped.  
  
“She’s part-Veela, and you didn’t react at all to her charm before,” Tracey said, moving over to him as she had taken a few steps before realizing Harry had stopped. “It surprised her as almost every boy in the school has been reacting to her, including Draco, Blaise, and Theo.”  
  
Harry blinked in surprise. He hadn’t even noticed that the night before, but now that he thought about it, it was the truth. Once Fleur had taken off her shawl, she had gotten looks from the entire Hall last night, including his friends.  
  
“Viktor and I were the only ones in our part of the table who didn’t stare at her,” Harry muttered quietly, and Tracey nodded.  
  
“I asked him why when you were talking to Fleur,” Tracey admitted. “Turns out working with Veela as the Bulgaria team mascot gave him some of an immunity to them so that he could play Quidditch properly, so Fleur doesn’t really bother him.”  
  
“Interesting, but that doesn’t explain why I’m not affected by her.”  
  
“High tolerance or someone else you care about deeply are both options, though it’s more likely the latter as not even high tolerance makes a male very immune to the charm,” Tracey stated, and Harry realized she must have read up on Veelas before. Then he realized what she had said and groaned.  
  
“You aren’t going to let this go any time soon, are you?” he asked her, already knowing the answer.  
  
“Nope,” she said, popping the ‘p’ just to be annoying. “When are you going to admit it to yourself even, let alone the rest of us?”  
  
Harry just muttered darkly under his breath as he walked around Tracey, headed to lunch. Behind him, Tracey was snickering as she followed.

…

“It’s almost time,” Blaise said excitedly. “Who are you all rooting for?”  
  
“Cedric, of course,” Harry replied, and the others nodded in agreement. “He’s a good guy and earns the chance. Angelina would be nice as well, though.”  
  
“I just wish they would hurry up,” Theo muttered, glancing up at the teachers.  
  
“Just eat and wait for them, Theo,” Tracey scolded as she ate another bite. Harry, too, was eating. He was impatient, but knew that the Halloween feast was always good, so letting it go to waste wasn’t worth it.  
  
Theo groaned but began eating as well.  
  
At long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the Hall, which died away almost instantly as Dumbledore got to his feet. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr. Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.  
  
"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," Dumbledore said. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the Champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" - he indicated the door behind the staff table - "where they will be receiving their first instructions."  
  
He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness.  
  
“Show off,” Draco muttered under his breath, and a lot of the Slytherins who could hear him nodded in agreement.  
  
The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluish-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting… A few people kept checking their watches…  
  
The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it - the whole room gasped.  
  
Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.  
  
"The Champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."  
  
Harry and his friends cheered for Viktor as he got up from beside Blaise among the applause from his fellow Durmstrang students. He gave the Slytherins a quick grin before it was gone, and he slouched up to the Head Table, entering the room Dumbledore gestured to.  
  
"Bravo, Viktor!" Karkaroff boomed, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. "Knew you had it in you!"  
  
The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.  
  
"The Champion for Beauxbatons," Dumbledore said, "is Fleur Delacour!"  
  
Harry and Tracey cheered for Fleur alongside the French students, and she nodded at them as she spotted it.  
  
When Fleur Delacour too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it. The Hogwarts champion next…  
  
And the Goblet of Fire turned red a third time; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment.  
  
"The Hogwarts Champion," he called, "is Cedric Diggory!"  
  
Every single Hufflepuff jumped to his or her feet, screaming and stamping, as Cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off toward the chamber behind the teachers' table. Harry, his friends, and everyone with a Journal including Angelina cheered as well, glad for their friend. The applause for Cedric went on so long that it was some time before Dumbledore could make himself heard again.  
  
"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three Champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your Champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your Champion on, you will contribute in a very real –"  
  
But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him.  
  
The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long tongue of flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment.  
  
Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out - "Harry Potter."  
  
All Harry could do was stare at Dumbledore as every single eye turned to look at him. His eyes were wide as he just sat there, shocked beyond belief. Dumbledore had to have read that wrong — it couldn’t be him. _He hadn’t entered!_  
  
Turning to look at his friends, they all stared at him in complete shock. It was obvious that they couldn’t believe it either, but they all knew that it was true when Dumbledore called out again.  
  
"Harry Potter!" he called again. "Harry! Up here, if you please!"  
  
Tracey and Daphne helped him up and pushed him towards the Head Table. Taking a deep breath, Harry put on his leader face and walked up with a blank face and a straight back, trying so hard not to let the accusing glares get to him, even though they were.  
  
When he got to the Head Table, he didn’t even stop as he walked straight past them and into the room with the other champions. He knew that it was where he was going to be sent anyway, so why wait to allow others to see more of him or talk to him?  
  
Harry went through the door out of the Great Hall and found himself in a smaller room lined with paintings of witches and wizards. A handsome fire was roaring in the fireplace opposite him. The faces in the portraits turned to look at him as he entered. He saw a wizened witch flit out of the frame of her picture and into the one next to it, which contained a wizard with a walrus mustache. The wizened witch started whispering in his ear.  
  
Viktor, Cedric, and Fleur were grouped around the fire. They looked strangely impressive, silhouetted against the flames. Viktor, hunched up and brooding, was leaning against the mantelpiece, slightly apart from the other two. Cedric was standing with his hands behind his back, staring into the fire. Fleur looked around when Harry walked in and threw back her sheet of long, silvery hair.  
  
“Harry, what’s wrong?” Cedric asked quickly, rushing over to his younger friend as he spotted the Slytherin.  
  
“My name came out of the Goblet,” he said hoarsely, still unable to believe it.  
  
“It _what_?” he gasped as Viktor and Fleur quickly rushed over to be beside the pair.  
  
“It came out after yours,” Harry whispered, his head falling down in defeat. “I’m going to have to compete now. The Goblet is a magical contract, meaning I can’t get out of it even though I didn’t enter myself into the Tournament.”  
  
“Who vould do this?” Viktor asked, and Harry looked up at him, knowing his eyes looked haunted. The older boy actually took a step back as Harry looked him in the eyes.  
  
“Lord Voldemort,” he stated just as the door opened and Ludo Bagman entered the room.  
  
"Extraordinary!" he muttered as he walked up to the four. "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen… lady," he added. "May I introduce - incredible though it may seem - the fourth Triwizard Champion?"  
  
“’E deed not enter ‘imself in ze Tournament,” Fleur said, and Harry was feeling a bit grateful to the three seventeen-year-olds as they stood around him, defending him. “Why is ‘e being forced to compete? ‘E ees too young as well.” Beside them, Cedric and Viktor were nodding their agreement.  
  
"Well… it is amazing," Bagman said, rubbing his smooth chin and smiling down at Harry. "But, as you know, the age restriction was only imposed this year as an extra safety measure. And as his name's come out of the goblet… I mean, I don't think there can be any ducking out at this stage… It's down in the rules, you're obliged… Harry will just have to do the best he –"  
  
The door behind them opened again, and a large group of people came in: Professor Dumbledore, followed closely by Mr. Crouch, Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape. Harry heard the buzzing of the hundreds of students on the other side of the wall, before Professor McGonagall closed the door.  
  
None of the Champions left Harry. All of them were his friends now, and they didn’t want to leave him alone. Harry could tell that all four of them would be close pretty soon, especially if he was also a Champion.  
  
"What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr ?" Madam Maxime said imperiously.  
  
"I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore," Professor Karkaroff said. He was wearing a steely smile, and his blue eyes were like chips of ice. "Two Hogwarts Champions? I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed two champions — or have I not read the rules carefully enough?"  
  
He gave a short and nasty laugh.  
  
"C'est impossible," Madame Maxime, who had moved to stand next to Fleur, who was still next to Harry, as Karkaroff moved to be next to Viktor, said. Neither of them was moving when their professors tried to move them. "’Ogwarts cannot 'ave two Champions. It is most injus t."  
  
"We were under the impression that your Age Line would keep out younger contestants, Dumbledore," Karkaroff said, his steely smile still in place, though his eyes were colder than ever. "Otherwise, we would, of course, have brought along a wider selection of candidates from our own schools."  
  
No one said anything for a moment as Harry felt the other three Champions placing hands on his shoulders and his arm. It was their way of showing they were there for him no matter what, and he grinned internally at the show of unity, though it didn’t show on his face as nothing could make him smile right now.  
  
Then, Professor Dumbledore finally spoke.  
  
"Did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire, Harry?" he asked calmly.  
  
“No, nor have I ever had an intention of it since I heard of the Tournament,” he replied, his eyes narrowing a bit as Karkaroff and Maxime snorted in disbelief.  
  
"Did you ask an older student to put it into the Goblet of Fire for you?" Professor Dumbledore said, ignoring what Harry had added as well as the other two Heads.  
  
“No, I did not, as I just said!” Harry exclaimed, but the three around him tried to calm him down.  
  
“’Arry, it will be okay,” Fleur whispered to him, and Harry took a deep breath before calming down.  
  
“Professor, it’s true,” Cedric said aloud as Harry calmed down. “People have been asking Harry since the first week of school if he was going to enter, and he’s been saying no the entire time. Once or twice people even asked him to use truth spells or another way to prove himself and he always did it willingly. I witnessed some truth spells being used without his permission at least three times  
  
“Harry’s had no intention of entering himself in this Tournament. In fact, he’s been rooting for me to become Champion, and if not me, then Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor. He’s made no secret of who he’s been rooting for.”  
  
"Ah, but of course 'e is lying!" Madame Maxime cried. “Both of them must be!”  
  
As the Heads and McGonagall began to argue, Harry gestured for his own Head of House to come closer. When Snape was right by him, Harry stepped away from the other three to whisper in the man’s ear. Stepping away, Snape looked Harry over with a calculating gaze before nodding once and walking back over to the professors.  
  
“What was that about?” Cedric asked as Harry moved back to the teens.  
  
“The only way I’ll be believed,” Harry whispered quietly, earning sharp looks from the other three, but he just watched Snape.  
  
“Headmaster, if I might make a suggestion,” Snape began, quieting the others. “Why not give Potter Veritaserum to prove his innocence?”  
  
“Severus, you know we cannot do that,” Dumbledore began, but Harry himself interrupted.  
  
“Except for the fact that I was the one to give Professor Snape the idea and will willingly be put under the potion as long as he is the only one to ask me the questions,” Harry stated, nodding at his Head of House. He didn’t trust any of the other adults not to abuse the potion.  
  
Dumbledore sighed as he saw the others in the room agreed with the idea, gesturing towards his Potions Master to produce the potion.  
  
Snape pulled out a small vial of a clear liquid, which Harry recognized as the truth serum. He then walked over to Harry and opened the potion, pulling out a dropper and filling it. The Slytherin opened his mouth and drank the three drops placed into it.  
  
Harry felt himself go into an odd state that he just couldn’t describe. It wasn’t like the Imperious Curse where he didn’t have any feeling at all, but he wasn’t as aware as he normally would be.  
  
“What is your name?” Snape’s voice asked.  
  
“Harry James Potter,” Harry heard himself replying without any control of what he was saying.  
  
“Did you enter yourself in the Triwizard Tournament?” he then asked, obviously thinking that the potion was working.  
  
“No,” Harry felt himself reply.  
  
“Did you ask anyone to enter you?”  
  
“No,” he repeated.  
  
“Have you had any intention of entering the Tournament since you heard about it?” Snape finally asked.  
  
“Never,” Harry replied.  
  
The next thing he knew, another liquid was placed in his mouth and he became aware again. Blinking a few times, Harry looked around to see that Dumbledore was upset but also pleased, as were McGonagall and Snape. Karkaroff and Maxime finally admitted defeat, though they obviously weren’t pleased. Crouch and Bagman were nodding. Around him, the three other Champions were smiling a bit sadly as they had realized along with Harry that the truth didn’t really help him.  
  
“How was his name entered in the first place?” Karkaroff suddenly asked.  
  
“A powerful and skilled witch or wizard must have entered it,” a new voice stated as the sound of a wooden leg banging on the floor reached Harry’s ears; Professor Moody had arrived. “They hoodwinked a very powerful magical object! It would have needed an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that only three schools compete in the tournament… I'm guessing they submitted Potter's name under a fourth school, to make sure he was the only one in his category…"  
  
"You seem to have given this a great deal of thought, Moody," Karkaroff said coldly, "and a very ingenious theory it is - though of course, I heard you recently got it into your head that one of your birthday presents contained a cunningly disguised basilisk egg, and smashed it to pieces before realizing it was a carriage clock. So you'll understand if we don't take you entirely seriously…"  
  
"There are those who'll turn innocent occasions to their advantage," Moody retorted in a menacing voice. "It's my job to think the way Dark wizards do, Karkaroff - as you ought to remember…"  
  
"Alastor!" Dumbledore said warningly. Moody fell silent, though still surveying Karkaroff with satisfaction - Karkaroff's face was burning.  
  
"How this situation arose, we do not know," Dumbledore said, speaking to everyone gathered in the room. "It seems to me, however, that we have no choice but to accept it. Both Cedric and Harry have been chosen to compete in the Tournament, and neither can back out. This, therefore, they will do…”  
  
"Well, shall we crack on, then?" Bagman said, rubbing his hands together and smiling around the room. "Got to give our Champions their instructions, haven't we? Barty, want to do the honors?"  
  
"Yes," he said as he seemed to come out of a deep reverie, "instructions. Yes… the first task…  
  
"The first task is designed to test your daring," he told Harry, Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor, "so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard… very important.  
  
"The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges.  
  
"The Champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The Champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests."  
  
Harry smirked internally at the thought as he realized how Theo, Blaise, and Draco would take that information. In fact, how most of his friends with colored Journals would take it.  
  
Mr. Crouch turned to look at Dumbledore.  
  
"I think that's all, is it, Albus?"  
  
"I think so," Dumbledore said, who was looking at Mr. Crouch with mild concern. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to stay at Hogwarts tonight, Barty?"  
  
"No, Dumbledore, I must get back to the Ministry," said Mr. Crouch. "It is a very busy, very difficult time at the moment… I've left young Weatherby in charge… Very enthusiastic… a little overenthusiastic, if truth be told…”  
  
"You'll come and have a drink before you go, at least?" Dumbledore said.  
  
"Come on, Barty, I'm staying!" Bagman said brightly. "It's all happening at Hogwarts now, you know, much more exciting here than at the office!"  
  
"I think not, Ludo," Crouch said with a touch of his old impatience.  
  
"Professor Karkaroff - Madame Maxime - a nightcap?" Dumbledore asked.  
  
Madam Maxime and Karkaroff were trying to lead their students out of the room, but Viktor and Fleur shook their heads, replying in their native languages to whatever their Heads were saying. In the end, the professors left without their charges.  
  
"Harry, Cedric, I suggest you go up to bed," Dumbledore said, smiling at both of them. "I am sure Slytherin and Hufflepuff are waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise."  
  
Harry snorted silently at the thought of Slytherin celebrating this. Oh, they would enjoy it, but not a single one of them would be celebrating this. It just wasn’t how Slytherin worked.  
  
Harry led the other three from the room, anyway, though. When they got to the Entrance Hall, they all stopped.  
  
“This is going to cause problems,” Cedric stated, and Harry nodded silently. He, too, agreed that the next few days were going to be bad. “I’ll try to talk to the Hufflepuffs. Have your friends talk to the other Houses, okay?”  
  
“It’s the only way I won’t get attacked,” Harry sighed, and Cedric laughed a bit.  
  
“Harry, _no one_ would attack you,” he said. “We all know your ability with pranking. In fact, many students are afraid to find out what you can do in a duel.”  
  
Harry laughed before turning to Viktor and Fleur.  
  
“Thanks for that in there,” he said, gesturing towards the Great Hall, and they both nodded with small smiles. “I’ve got a question for all of you, though.”  
  
“What?” Cedric asked for the group.  
  
“Why don’t we work together to figure things out? The whole Tournament is messed up already, seeing as I’m in it. All Crouch said was that we can’t get help from teachers; he said nothing about other students.”  
  
“I like eet,” Fleur said. “Make eet more fair as we will all ‘ave ze same information at the Tasks.”  
  
“Very vell, I agree as vell,” Viktor said.  
  
“Of course I agree, but Harry, you’re at a disadvantage to the rest of us because we have more magical training than you,” Cedric said, but Harry smiled a little.  
  
“No one said I can’t ask the professors for book suggestions on what to read that might help,” he told them all with a smug grin, making them laugh. “Flitwick and McGonagall will be willing to either suggest or give me advanced books in Charms and Transfiguration. They’ve done it before, in fact. I already know how to do most of the spells for this year, and my friends are at about the same level as me. We practice a lot, especially with The Den.”  
  
“Wow,” Cedric said with slightly wide eyes. “We might just have a challenge in you, Harry.” Harry just laughed.  
  
“Well, it’s been a long night,” Harry sighed. “I’ll see you all tomorrow in The Den, most likely. Though if I disappear for a lot of the day, don’t worry too much about me. With the looks I was getting earlier, much of the school is going to hate me tomorrow.”  
  
“I’ll talk to the Hufflepuffs, don’t worry about them,” Cedric said, and Harry nodded gratefully.  
  
“I vill tell my friends the truth, even if Karkaroff does not,” Viktor stated, and Harry grinned.  
  
“I will as well, ‘Arry,” Fleur agreed.  
  
“Thanks guys,” Harry said, “but I’d better get going before my friends attack me when I get back.”  
  
Harry headed down to the Slytherin dungeons, Cedric went in the direction of the kitchens, and Fleur and Krum went outside.

…

Up in the Ravenclaw tower, a group consisting of the first through fourth years stood on one side of the room while the fifth through seventh years were on the other. A few seventh years were at the front of the older group while five students from the other four years stood in front of the younger group.  
  
“Harry didn’t enter himself!” Padma yelled. “He’s been fighting to prove it to everyone for _two bloody months_ that he doesn’t want to be in the Tournament! In fact, I saw him use a truth spell in front of all of you just last week that he wasn’t even thinking about entering, nor was he going to.”  
  
“All of you see Harry as an attention-seeking Slytherin, but he isn’t,” Terry said as he placed a hand on the fourth year’s shoulder. “He’s the Boy-Who-Lived, and he _hates_ the title. Something none of you can see is that Harry wants to _earn_ his fame, not be given it for something he can’t even remember, something that lost him his parents. If you all want to believe that he’s just doing this for more fame when he could die from it, none of you belong in Ravenclaw, so you should all just leave.” He then gestured for the fourth years to follow him as he went up the boys’ staircase and Padma led the girls up their own.  
  
“Use your brains and act like Ravenclaws before it leaves you all looking like idiots,” Bradley Martin, the third year leader of Ravenclaw, said as he shook his head, gesturing for the third years to follow him.  
  
“All you’re doing it embarrassing yourselves by actually arguing with us instead of using your eyes and your brains,” Robert Chambers, the second year leader, stated before leading his own year out of the Common Room.  
  
“If this is what Ravenclaw is like, I don’t think I want to stay here anymore, and I’m pretty sure the rest of my year agree with me,” little Orla Quirke stated, gesturing with her head towards her fellow first years. “Come on, guys, let’s leave the stupid Ravenclaws to their thoughts. Maybe their brains will grow instead of shrink because of it.”  
  
Once they were all gone, the older Ravenclaws were left standing there, all of them a bit shocked as they realized they had just been told off by students younger than they, and they actually felt ashamed by what had been said. Slowly, they began grouping together to talk about what had been said.

…

Further along the seventh floor, the Gryffindor Common Room was just as full as the Ravenclaw one had been just moments before. The situation was similar, except the younger Gryffindors had help from some of the older students, and these were the ones the older students would listen to as they were the Weasley twins, the Quidditch girls, and Lee Jordan.  
  
“All of you, use your brains for once instead of letting instinct lead you,” Hermione stated to the silent Common Room. “Tell me _one time_ Harry has bragged about _anything_ to anyone except his closest friends! Tell me _one time_ Harry has shown off his fame to the school!” She turned in a circle to see the entire House, all of whom were along the walls except for the leaders and the few older students helping them.  
  
“I thought so! None of you can because there hasn’t been a single time, not even after a Quidditch match! Now think. Do you really think Harry would enter the Tournament just for more fame if he doesn’t even use the fame he has? Why would he enter if he could _die_ doing this? Just use your brains, and maybe this House will be something to be proud of.”  
  
Hermione turned and stalked up the girls’ staircase, everyone’s eyes following her until she disappeared from sight. Then they all turned to the group in the middle of the room.  
  
“She’s completely right, so use your brains before trouble ensues from all of this,” Ginny stated before rushing up after Hermione.  
  
After they both left, no one spoke for a bit as most of the first four years went up to bed, showing the older years their displeasure without saying a word. In the end, only Ron and his friends were left of them. The Gryffindor Chasers and the Seeker had also gone to bed, leaving only the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan in the middle of the room.  
  
“If, after you’ve thought about all of this, and you come to this same decision, count yourselves lucky that Harry won’t try to take revenge,” Fred began.  
  
“Because the only reason that boy isn’t the head prankster of the school, with our sister Ginny and his almost-sister Tracey, is because he doesn’t want to be,” George continued.  
  
“And he knows how to out-prank even us, so watch out,” they finished together before leading Lee Jordan from the room to go to bed.  
  
“Do you believe them, Ron?” Dean Thomas asked the redhead, and Ron looked his friend over before looking over the other fourth years.  
  
“Yeah, I reckon I do, Dean,” he finally said. “Even more, I reckon I agree with their views, and maybe you should ask around to find out what they are. Maybe we’ll find out that we have more in common with them than we know and will want to be friends with Harry and his huge group of friends. We just saw how much they all like him, and there may be a reason for it.”  
  
Ron turned and headed for bed, done talking. He had planted the seeds in his friends’ minds, and he hoped they grew into something beautiful.  
  
In the Common Room, everyone was talking quietly about Harry Potter being a Champion and what they thought of it.

…

Cedric entered the Hufflepuff Common Room near the kitchens, and was shocked at the sight in front of him. Instead of waiting for him, his House was divided with the Journal group on one side and everyone else on the other. Susan, Matthew, Kyle, and Laura, the Hufflepuff leaders, were at the front of the Journal group, and that was when he figured out what was going on.  
  
“You’re all traitors for siding with the Slytherin who is just trying to take away Cedric and Hufflepuff’s glory!” Cedric’s friend Derek was yelling at the younger students.  
  
“Derek! Stop!” he yelled as he walked between the groups and stood facing his friend. “Now, all of you sit on opposite sides of this Common Room, and let me speak!”  
  
Everyone quickly rushed to sit down as they watched the most liked, hard-working, and calm Hufflepuff of them all get angry.  
  
“I am only going to say this once, so listen closely,” he stated in a hard voice. “Harry Potter did not enter himself into the Tournament! He was entered by someone else without his knowledge, and now he has to compete. Harry himself proved it by willingly taking Veritaserum in front of everyone in the room. No one knows who did it, but he was entered.  
  
“Something else I’d like to remind you all of is the fact that Harry went around the school with truth spells to prove that he wasn’t going to enter for almost two months, yet you turn on him right away when this happens. I’m glad you’re all standing up for me, but it isn’t fair on Harry.  
  
“Besides, he hasn’t made it a secret at all that he’s been rooting for me to be Champion since word got out that I was entering. He was clapping just as hard as you lot were when I got called, though I’m betting none of you noticed it. That boy, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, goes through more trouble because of his name, fame, and everything else in his life. Don’t add to it!  
  
“Every year something has happened to him, and he wanted a quiet year for once. Now he’s not going to get it, but he won’t complain because he’s like that. He accepts everything that happens to him because he knows he can’t avoid it, but we can make it easier on him by not attacking him about something that _isn’t his fault_!  
  
“Now, I’m going to bed, and I don’t want to hear another word from any of you. Remember my words, and figure out by tomorrow what you’re going to do about it. I’m not expecting you to cheer for him instead of me, but I would like it if you’d root for both of us seeing as we’re both part of a deadly competition, but I’ll understand completely if you don’t. Just do _not_ treat him like scum.”  
  
Cedric turned and went down the hall to his room, the younger years right behind him as he had said everything they had wanted to be said.  
  
Behind them, the older students were in shock as they realized what they had been doing.

…

Harry was unaware of all of this as he entered his own Common Room. He was met by silence as he walked in to see every single Slytherin watching him. Sighing internally, he realized he had things to say.  
  
“Ask Professor Snape if you have to, but I proved to everyone that I didn’t enter myself by willingly taking Veritaserum,” he said to the room, and that made a few of the older students stir.  
  
“I don’t care if you believe me or not,” he continued. “All I care about is that you don’t treat Cedric any differently, don’t make fun of the other Houses because I’m a champion, and just leave everything alone. Cheer for Cedric if you want to because he _is_ the actual Hogwarts Champion, but don’t be rude or mean about it. That’s all I ask of you.”  
  
Harry then moved to sit with his friends. They were all looking at him a bit sadly, but he could tell they understood.  
  
“How are you holding up?” Tracey asked from beside him.  
  
“I’ll survive,” he sighed as he sank down onto the couch a bit more, the rest of the House finally beginning to talk and move again.  
  
“What happened?” Theo asked, and Harry slowly began telling them what he knew. When he was done, they all just stared at him for a bit.  
  
“Wow,” Daphne finally said.  
  
“You don’t even know what the first task is?” Tracey asked, and Harry shook his head.  
  
“Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur agreed that we’re going to work together, though, so if one of us finds out, all of us will know by the task,” he told them.  
  
“At least there’s that,” she muttered.  
  
“Have you heard anything from the other Houses?” he asked.  
  
“All of the leaders are talking right now,” Maya said, and Harry could tell from the look in her eye that meant in the leaders’ section of the Journals, not the normal area. Her Journal was open on her lap, and she was mostly just listening.  
  
“And?” he asked her.  
  
“Each House had a huge fight between the Journal group and the rest,” Astoria said from beside Daphne. “Cedric stopped Hufflepuff’s, Hermione and Ginny shut up Gryffindor, and the leaders outsmarted the Ravenclaws.”  
  
“What happened in here?” Harry finally asked, knowing they had been waiting for it.  
  
“The older students began asking us how you had done it and why you had done it,” Blaise said. “We told them you hadn’t, and that shut them up as they tried to decide if it was true or not. Then they began talking about the different ideas of what could have happened until you came in. Mostly, they wanted to hear it from you, so they waited.”  
  
“At least there’s that,” he muttered quietly. “I’m going to bed,” he said louder to the group. “I’m tired and need some rest.”  
  
“Go,” Tracey said softly, and he smiled a little at her before turning to head to his dorm.  
  
“He’ll be alright,” Harry heard her tell the others as he left.

…

Around the school, students of all ages were thinking about what they had been told and what they knew. All around, many views were changing, and decisions were being made.  
  
Hogwarts was changing again.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

Harry woke up early the next morning, and he quickly got ready for the day. Pulling on his Invisibility Cloak, Harry left the Common Room and headed up to the Astronomy Tower. Alone and still invisible, Harry looked out at the grounds. The sun was just rising so much of it was still in shadow.

It was still so hard for him to believe that he was now a Hogwarts Champion. Only yesterday he had been asking his friends who they thought would be Champion, and now he was the fourth and the youngest.  
  
Sighing, Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a small mirror. He held it in his hand, contemplating using it or not. Finally, he decided to use it.  
  
“Sirius,” he whispered, and the mirror heated up for a few moments before a face appeared in it. Sirius had obviously been woken up by the mirror, and his eyes were worried, but he was awake and there.  
  
“Harry, what’s wrong? Why do you look so upset and pale?” Sirius asked quickly. Harry hadn’t even realized he was pale, but he must have been quite pale if Sirius’ reaction meant anything.  
  
In quiet whispers, Harry told Sirius about the Tournament and being a Champion as well as everything that had happened after his name had come out of the Goblet of Fire. He was unable to speak any louder as he spoke his fears.  
  
“It seems you have a problem, Harry, but you’re good at magic, good at fighting, and you _will_ survive this,” Sirius said when Harry was finally done; he hadn’t interrupted Harry once. “I’m upset that you’ve been forced into this, but there’s no way around it, so we’re just going to have to do our best to make sure you fight.”  
  
“Sirius, I’m only fourteen!” Harry cried, his voice finally going to a normal volume for the first time. “Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor are all seventeen, and they’ve all got an extra three years of school on me.”  
  
“Normal school, yes, but Harry, Samuel, Daniel, and I have trained you the best we can during the summer. You’re the best of the duelers and fighters of the group, and if you’re allowed more than just a wand in the other tasks, you’ll win for sure. Don’t cut yourself short before you’ve even started. Just get some books from McGonagall and Flitwick; those will help you get a bit more advanced in your skills so that you have multiple choices for the tasks.  
  
“Otherwise, just do what you do best, Harry: Improvise. Take whatever knowledge you have, and do whatever it takes. All I ask is that you don’t use your Animagus form. Other than that, go above your year as much as you can, and just don’t panic. That’s all anyone can ask of you, Harry.”  
  
“Thanks, Sirius,” he said softly, calming down after hearing all that as it was true. “Do you think they’ll let me bring other stuff with me for the other tasks?”  
  
“I’m not sure, but if they do, we’re getting you one of those dragonhide armor sets from your Family Storage Vault so that you’re more protected, got it?”  
  
“I’ve got it Padfoot,” Harry laughed, a lot more relaxed now.  
  
“Good, now go eat and learn what you can, Pup,” Sirius said before turning off his mirror.  
  
Looking out at the grounds again, Harry saw it was completely light out and breakfast would be well on its way. His friends knew about the Cloak, but they also had their Maps, so they wouldn’t be worried, which was a good thing as he had needed the chance to be by himself for a while.  
  
Sighing, Harry slipped the mirror away, and went down to breakfast, only pulling the Cloak off when he was just outside the Entrance Hall.  
  
Harry walked into the Great Hall, and it fell silent. Looking around, he saw that everyone was looking at him, but not one person was glaring. In fact, most now looked sympathetic, some encouraging, and a few were neutral.  
  
Lifting his chin and setting his shoulders, Harry walked over to where Cedric was gesturing from his table. He, Viktor, Fleur, and a few of Harry’s close friends were already sitting there along with a few of Viktor and Fleur’s friends.  
  
“Zese are Annabelle and Adrien,” Fleur said to introduce her two friends.  
  
“Andrey and Ivana,” Viktor said, gesturing to his two friends.  
  
“Ginny, Tracey, Blaise, Theo, and Daphne,” Harry said as he raised an eyebrow in their direction, but they just shrugged and smiled while looking at Cedric. That explained it.  
  
“How did your classmates take what you told them?” Harry asked as he sat down, looking at the foreigners.  
  
“They believed me once I made sure they knew about the potion,” Viktor said, and his two friends nodded.  
  
“Eet took me a while, but zey leestened eventually,” Fleur admitted, and her two friends looked sheepish.  
  
“At least they believed it,” Harry told them with a smile. “From what I’ve heard, Hogwarts was fighting with itself last night. Looking around, I gather my side won the fight.”  
  
“That’s about right,” Cedric laughed. “Hufflepuff decided not to be on your side, but they’re not against you.” Harry nodded, understanding that he meant the older students.  
  
“Gryffindor is about the same,” Ginny admitted, “and Luna told me Ravenclaw is as well.”  
  
“As long as they aren’t against me, I don’t really care,” Harry shrugged before eating.  
  
“Vant to fly today, Harry?” Viktor suddenly asked a few minutes later, surprising them all.  
  
“Sure,” he replied with a grin. “After breakfast?”  
  
“I vill meet you there,” Viktor agreed.

…

“A _Firebolt_ ,” Viktor said, obviously impressed as he looked it over while holding his _Nimbus 2001_ in his hand.  
  
“The _Nimbus 2001_ isn’t bad at all, though,” Harry said. “I used to ride one . A very good broom.”  
  
“Let us fly for a bit before Cedric lets out the Snitch, yes?” Viktor suggested, and Harry nodded happily.  
  
Both took off into the air, and Harry felt at home. He began zooming around the Pitch, taking care not to show off his diving ability as he did zigzags, barrel rolls, and going up and down like a roller coaster. By the time Cedric called that he was going to release the Snitch, Harry was ready.  
  
Much to Harry’s surprise, Viktor had brought a professional Snitch with him, meaning it was much faster than what Harry was used to. Grinning, the two boys got into place above Cedric. The Hufflepuff released the Snitch and waited twenty seconds before blowing the whistle in his hand.  
  
Harry had followed the Snitch with his eyes until it suddenly disappeared. Then, when he heard the whistle, Harry took off, zooming around the Pitch in search of the little gold ball, keeping an eye on Viktor as he did so.  
  
Suddenly, Viktor began to dive. Before following, Harry looked down and saw that the Snitch wasn’t there, so he didn’t fall for the fake, though he had to admit that Viktor had had him there for a few moments. It was a disappointed Viktor Krum, though, who rose to begin searching again; he had obviously been hoping to fake Harry out big time.  
  
Harry, bored with the searching after an hour, pretended to get a look on his face that he had seen the Snitch as he dove straight down. He could actually hear Viktor following as he continued the Wronski Feint, pulling out of it at the last second before zooming up into the air again to begin searching. Below him, Viktor had crashed, though it hadn’t been a bad one as the star Seeker had figured out the fake just in time to pull up a bit.  
  
Another half hour passed before Harry suddenly caught sight of a flash of gold off to his right. Viktor was further away, so Harry tore off after the Snitch.  
  
It led both Seekers left, right, up, down, and into dives. Harry was in front because of his lead, but Viktor wasn’t going to give up as he fought to catch up to the younger Seeker.  
  
Suddenly, the Snitch dove straight down, and Harry followed, Viktor not far behind. Unfortunately for Viktor, he didn’t realize that dives were Harry’s specialty as the Slytherin gained a lot of speed in the dive, pulling out of if just a few feet from the Snitch while Viktor was a few broom lengths behind the younger boy.  
  
Harry put a bit more force on his broom and grabbed the Snitch, tumbling to the ground as he launched himself off the broom a bit too much while snagging the elusive ball.  
  
A few moments later, Viktor offered his hand to Harry to help him up, and Harry took it.  
  
“You fly amazingly,” the older boy said as he helped Harry up, not letting go of his hand as he shook it. “A good game. I haff never been challenged that vell before. You did not fall for my feint, but I fell for yours. You earned the vin, and you could play on any team you vanted if you tried.”  
  
“Thanks, Viktor,” Harry said, unable to think of anything else to say in his shock. He hadn’t expected that sort of congratulation from Viktor.  
  
“It is only the truth,” Viktor said, shaking his head as he let go of Harry’s hand. “Keep the Snitch; it is yours now.”  
  
“Thanks,” Harry said again, this time meaning it as he grasped the Snitch tightly in his hand.  
  
“That was amazing, Harry!” Theo exclaimed as he rushed over.  
  
It was only then that looked around to see that most of the stands were filled, and even some of the professors were there watching the match between the two Seekers, Dumbledore included. Most had looks of shock on their face at the result of the match, but many of Harry’s friends were smiling.  
  
“Bloody brilliant, Harry!” Blaise said in agreement, getting a hit up the head by Daphne for the language.  
  
“Well done,” Tracey agreed with a small smile.  
  
“Good entertainment, then?” Harry called to the entire stadium, and there were cheers all around as they got over the end result and began clapping for the actual match. “Not a bad way to start the competitions, eh?” he asked his friends more quietly.  
  
“Competitions?” Viktor asked curiously.  
  
“Some of the younger years came up with the idea of a bunch of different competitions throughout the year around the Tournament as only the Champions do anything for it, and even then there are only three Tasks,” Theo explained to him. “We’re going to have flying races, obstacle courses, unofficial Quidditch matches, running races, football games, chess tournaments, and so much more throughout the year. This is the unofficial beginning of them, I guess.”  
  
“I tink my friends vill vant to join in,” Viktor told them, and they all smiled and nodded.  
  
“We have to do this again, Viktor,” Harry told the Seeker, and Viktor agreed.  
  
The agreement was sealed by a handshake that just added to the cheers.

…

“Professor Flitwick?” Harry asked as he walked up to the Charms professor after class of the day on Monday.  
  
“Yes, Mr. Potter?”  
  
“Do you happen to have any books or suggestions that I can read to get ahead, possibly?” he asked. Flitwick looked him in the eye, and Harry knew his professor understood why he was asking.  
  
“I was actually just sorting through my books and came across some that might interesting you, Mr. Potter,” Flitwick said, moving towards his desk and pulling out a set of shrunken books from behind it. “Enjoy them, but I would like them back sometime in the year.”  
  
“Of course, Professor, and thanks,” Harry said, smiling as he put the books in his bag and left the room.

…

“Do you have any Transfiguration books that might be useful in learning things ahead of time, Professor?” Harry asked Professor McGonagall between classes. It was in the middle of his double free period because of Arithmancy, and he was using it to talk to her.  
  
“You might find transforming inanimate objects into animals interesting, along with conjuring and some other spells, but please realize that they will take a lot of work as they’re sixth and seventh year spells,” she finally said after looking him over, going to a bookshelf in her classroom and pulling some books down for him.  
  
“Thanks, Professor!” he said, placing those books in his bag and leaving the room just as Cedric led his friends in. The two boys shared smiles, and Harry knew Cedric understood why he had been there.

…

“This is going to be some tough stuff for you to learn, Harry,” Tracey warned him as they entered the Room of Requirement to find their normal training room waiting for them.  
  
“I know, but if I don’t learn higher level spells, I’m not going to be able to survive the tasks, let alone succeed at them,” he reminded her.  
  
They pulled out the books and began taking notes on the spells that seemed the most useful. It took a while to make up a list and when they were ready, Harry began trying to cast them. Unfortunately, even starting easy didn’t help as it didn’t really work very well.  
  
“Let’s go get dinner and then drag Ginny up here with us,” Tracey suggested as he threw his wand on a pillow that suddenly appeared in frustration.  
  
“Fine,” he sighed, packing up the books and notes before letting Tracey lead him from the room.

…

“Harry, you know as well as I do that you need to _picture_ the Transfiguration,” Ginny sighed. “Just imagine the button turning into a beetle as you cast the spell.”  
  
Harry tried it, and he got it on the third try this time. Blinking, Harry began moving through the harder and harder spells, amazed as he realized it was a lot easier than before now that he was picturing it all. Of course, it helped that he had a good basis of knowledge on how animals looked after all of the Animagus training they had gone through.  
  
“Try this spell, Harry,” Tracey offered with a grin an hour before curfew, holding out the book.  
  
Grinning, Harry cast it, and the rock turned into a wolf on his first try. Then, he transformed and began wrestling with the transfigured wolf, which released the tension that had built up in him during the last hour.  
  
“How did you know how to make him do it?” Tracey was asking Ginny as Harry listened and wrestled at the same time.  
  
“He’s always been good at Transfiguration, and he has the power for it, but he forgets to picture the transformation at times when he starts getting frustrated,” Ginny said. “The easiest way to get him to succeed in any class is to be sure he remembers that sort of thing. It’ll be hard, but once he gets the concept down on the easier stuff, the harder stuff comes more naturally. Surely you’ve seen it in training.”  
  
“I have, but we’ve never done inanimate to living, only the other way around,” Tracey said.  
  
“Harry and I did some of this near the end of the summer, actually, and he wasn’t half bad at it,” Ginny corrected her.  
  
“Unfortunately, we don’t know what’s going to help me in the first task because we have no idea what the task is,” Harry said as he changed back into a human and turned the wolf back into a rock. “Knowing as large a range of spells as I can is probably the only way to make this work.”  
  
“True,” both girls admitted.  
  
“Let’s head off to bed,” he sighed. “We can work on the charms and conjuring during the week. I mean, the task is still three weeks away. No need to worry too much yet, especially if this is the speed we keep up the whole time.”  
  
They all packed up before heading off to bed.

…

“Guys, let’s go out to the forest for a while,” Harry said to the people with colored Journals one Saturday afternoon after they were done training. Over in the corner, Natalie, Graham, and Maya were all trying to get their Animagus transformations down. Maya was about halfway done with her snake while both Graham and Natalie were being helped by Tracey to become cats.  
  
“What do you mean, Harry?” Ginny asked. It had been almost three weeks since his name had come out of the Goblet of Fire, and no one knew what the task would be, so they had been training him as much as they could. The only eventful thing that had occurred had been the Weighing of Wands, and only because he got to tell off Rita Skeeter.  
  
“I mean we all need to run or fly or whatever our Animagus forms do to move,” he replied. “We’ve been working so hard that we need a chance to let loose.”  
  
“I agree with that one, let’s get going!” Theo exclaimed, rushing to put his stuff away in his bag and on his person so that he could get going.  
  
“Sorry you three, but you might be able to join us next time, okay?” Harry said to the three disappointed ones who couldn’t transform yet.  
  
“It’s okay, you all need to go and use your forms more,” Maya said for them. “Just be sure to help us more often after the Task, okay?”  
  
“Sure thing,” he replied with a grin as everyone left the Room of Requirement. Maya was going to help her brother and his best friend with homework while the others went outside to the lake to get out of sight before changing.  
  
Harry ran in his wolf form, zigzagging between trees as he ran around the lake inside the trees. Ginny was right behind him, trying to jump on him again. Overhead, a bunch of birds were flying. A raven was mostly keeping pace with the monkey jumping around in the trees.  
  
A lion, a bear, and a couple of foxes were running as well, a cat on the bear’s back. The cheetah and tiger were enjoying the run as a horse kept pace easily. The dog panting behind Harry was quite audible as he was very close to the wolf.  
  
Suddenly, the birds all started squawking as they rushed down in front of Harry, making him stop short before he ran into any of them. The other animals stopped around him, and they all changed back into humans quickly.  
  
“Harry, you have to see this!” Astoria exclaimed quietly. “Quick, everyone change, but move slowly and quietly — not a single sound. It’s big, bad, and scary, so you have to be _careful_.”  
  
Everyone changed again as the golden eagle of Astoria led the birds through the trees, and the birds led the rest of the Animagi in turn. Before they knew it, they were coming across a clearing that had been turned into an enclosure for the animals inside it. Unfortunately, they all realized what the animals were and why they were even at Hogwarts.  
  
Dragons! Harry and the other Champions had to either get past them or fight them for the first task.

…

“How the bloody hell and I supposed to get past a dragon?” Harry asked as they finally reached the Room of Requirement again. They had only stayed long enough to notice the eggs, which meant they were nesting mothers and the Champions would have to get past them, not fight them.  
  
“I don’t know, Harry, I really don’t know,” Hermione said worriedly as Harry began pulling out throwing knives and throwing them at the multiple targets in the room, all of them at different distances. When he was out of knives, Harry grabbed his sword and began attacking a dummy that appeared for him, but it was too easy for him to defeat in his agitated state.  
  
“ _Harry, calm down,_ ” Ginny hissed loudly, finally breaking through to him.  
  
Harry collapsed to the ground with his head in his hands, fighting the urge to cry in the frustration and defeat he was feeling. He could see no way to survive the First Task, let alone three of them.  
  
A hand on his back made Harry stiffen before he realized it was Ginny and relaxed. Soon, Tracey had joined her. Both of them hugged him gently as his fingers dug into his face, and he tried not to feel as if he was already defeated.  
  
“Harry, you need to relax and think about this,” Hermione tried to say, but he felt Ginny’s head move, so she must have given the Gryffindor a look as she said no more.  
  
Slowly, Harry relaxed and calmed himself. He then sat up and allowed the two girls to lead him to one of the couches the Room had provided.  
  
“How am I even going to survive this?” he moaned as he looked down at the floor, unable to look any of his friends in the eyes to see their worry and fear.  
  
“Use whatever magic you’ve been practicing and put it together so that you can get a distraction,” Padma suggested. She, like most of the group, had no idea what Harry had been practicing as the room had provided a spare room for his practice. Plus, he was doing most of his practice alone with only Tracey and Ginny there.  
  
“I guess I can make a distraction, but how do I get whatever I’ll have to get once the dragon is distracted?” Harry sighed, knowing that the animals he could make would only last for a minute or two at the most on a dragon.  
  
“Summon it?” Neville suggested.  
  
“Normally I’d say yes, but they’ll probably have Anti-Summoning charms on it,” Terry sighed.  
  
“Use magic to lift it to you?” Justin suggested.  
  
“I’ll keep that in mind, but it might be a bit too slow, which means I won’t be able to get it in time,” Harry told Justin with a grin that turned into a grimace.  
  
“Summon something under it,” Susan suddenly suggested, and everyone turned to her, nodding as it was a possibility.  
  
“Conjure something and stick it to it so that you can summon _that_ instead,” Luna suggested in her dreamy voice, and every stared at her in amazement.  
  
“Why didn’t we think of that before?” Theo exclaimed, hitting himself on the head.  
  
“Probably because you were all thinking too narrowly,” Luna said brightly .  
  
“That is probably the most brilliant idea ever, Luna, thank you!” Harry exclaimed as he got up and hugged the third year Ravenclaw. No one said anything to his comment as they knew he had said it in gratitude, and most of the group was just as grateful to her as they all wanted Harry to survive.  
  
“We’ve got a week to work on conjuring some more, now,” Harry said suddenly, turning to Tracey and Ginny. “I think we should get on it right now as we’ll need a bunch of different objects that can be stuck to whatever the goal might happen to be.”  
  
Laughing, the two girls left with Harry across the room just as Maya, Graham, and Natalie entered, called by Astoria to get more Animagus practice in.

…

“ _Dragons_?” Cedric exclaimed as Harry finished telling the other three about flying up high in the air earlier that day and spotting them, so he flew closer to figure out what the fire was from.  
  
“Ve are in trouble,” Viktor noted, but Harry had seen his face pale dramatically at the news.  
  
“’Arry, are you sure about zis?” Fleur asked worriedly.  
  
“Very sure,” Harry said emphatically as he nodded quickly. “There are four, one for each of us. From what I could see they’re probably nesting mothers as they’ve got eggs with them, which means we’ll only have to get past them and grab something.”  
  
“I guess ve should go and try to figure out vhat ve vill do for Thursday,” Viktor said as he got up from his spot on the grass near the lake.  
  
“Yes, I shall need help, though, and Madam Maxime weel ask where I got thee information,” Fleur sighed. “What should I tell her?”  
  
“That you heard Cedric and me talking about it,” Harry said instantly. “Karkaroff and Madam Maxime probably expect the two of us to be working together, so they’ll both believe the story easily.”  
  
“Zank you, ‘Arry,” Fleur said as she stood up gracefully to go back to the Beauxbatons carriage, and Viktor nodded in agreement before heading to the ship.  
  
“I’d better go try and figure out what to do,” Cedric sighed. “The library it is for me. I’ll see you later, Harry.”  
  
“See you later, Cedric,” Harry replied as he was left alone at the lake, looking out at the water as he thought about Thursday, unable to get rid of the nerves growing in his stomach. _  
_


	17. Chapter Seventeen

Harry could barely pay attention in Herbology Thursday morning, but Professor Sprout understood and told him to just watch for the double period.

The First Task was finally upon him, and Harry was scared beyond belief at the thought of it. He knew what he was going to do, but he was still worried.  
  
Of course, it was nice to know that he had a backup plan in place. Professor Moody had pulled him into his office the other day and reminded Harry that he could easily Summon his broom to the enclosure and fly against the dragon. Because of the idea, Tracey was going to carry his broom out and leave it right by the castle so that it wouldn’t break anything if he needed it.  
  
At lunch, all of his friends talked about anything but the task as they tried to distract him, but they all knew that was impossible. It didn’t help, of course, that he had been forced to leave his weapons in his dorm by his friends because they weren’t allowed. Of course, Tracey and Ginny had agreed to let him take the Dagger as long as he didn’t use it, and he wasn’t planning on it.  
  
Finally, Professor Snape walked over to him and led him towards the enclosure. On the way there, he actually spoke.  
  
“You’ll do well, Potter,” he said quietly, and Harry looked up at him, shocked. “I’ve watched you since you got to Hogwarts, and you’ve got the ability to do this. You’re best at Defense, but you’ve got your parents’ abilities in Charms, Potions, and Transfiguration as well. Just follow your instincts, and you’ll survive. As much as I hate to say it, you just need to let your inner Gryffindor work alongside your Slytherin side, and you’ll beat them all in this Tournament .”  
  
“Thanks, Professor,” Harry said, quite grateful for the encouragement.  
  
“Your mother would be so worried, but she’d also be proud of you,” was all he said before he fell silent, unknowingly copying what Sirius and Remus had told Harry over the mirrors that morning, though they had said his father.  
  
Harry entered the tent just outside the enclosure, and he hurried over to the others. All three of them were sitting in a circle on the floor with a spot left for him. They all looked worried and scared, but they knew that they would get through this. Ludo Bagman walked over to them and stood smiling down at them.  
  
Mr. Bagman looked somehow like a slightly overblown cartoon figure, standing amid all the pale-faced champions. He was wearing his old Wasp robes again. "Well, now we're all here - time to fill you in!" said Bagman brightly. "When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag" - he held up a small sack of purple silk and shook it at them - "from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different — er — varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else too… ah, yes… your task is to collect the Golden Egg !"  
  
Around Harry, the other three nodded. They all now knew what their goal was, so now they just had to make it happen. Now they all just whispered “Good luck,” to one another at random times while waiting otherwise silently.  
  
In no time at all, hundreds upon hundreds of pairs of feet could be heard passing the tent, their owners talking excitedly, laughing, joking… Harry felt as separate from the crowd as though they were a different species, but he knew the others were feeling like that as well. And then — it seemed like about a second later to Harry - Bagman was opening the neck of the purple silk sack.  
  
"Ladies first," he said, offering it to Fleur.  
  
She put a shaking hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny, perfect model of a dragon - a Welsh Green. It had the number two around its neck.  
  
Viktor was next. He pulled out a scarlet Chinese Fireball. It had a number three around its neck. He didn't even blink, just sat back down and stared at the ground.  
  
Cedric put his hand into the bag, and out came a bluish-gray Swedish Short-Snout, the number one tied around its neck. Harry put his hand into the silk bag and pulled out a Hungarian Horntail, and the number four. It stretched its wings as he looked down at it, and bared its minuscule fangs.  
  
"Well, there you are!" said Bagman. "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr. Diggory, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, all right? Now… Harry… could I have a quick word? Outside?"  
  
“I’m sorry, sir, but I need to think about what I might do for the task,” Harry replied, not liking the look in Bagman’s eyes. “Maybe afterwards. You should go get ready to commentate.”  
  
Bagman left looking a bit upset, but he left willingly after that.  
  
“Are you all ready?” Harry asked once he was out of earshot, and they all nodded, various looks of nervousness on their faces with Cedric the most nervous as he was going first. “Good luck to all of you, then.”  
  
“You as well,” Cedric said.  
  
“Yes, ‘ou as well, ‘Arry,” Fleur agreed.  
  
“I must agree vith them,” Viktor said. “Good luck everyone.”  
  
Just then the whistle blew, and Cedric quickly jogged out of the tent with his wand in his hand, sweat on his brow. They heard the roar of the crowd, which meant Cedric had entered the enclosure and was now face-to face with the living counterpart of his model.  
  
It was worse than Harry could ever have imagined, sitting there and listening. The crowd screamed… yelled… gasped like a single many-headed entity, as Cedric did whatever he was doing to get past the Swedish Short-Snout. Krum was still staring at the ground. Fleur had now taken to retracing Cedric's steps, around and around the tent. And Bagman's commentary made everything much, much worse… Horrible pictures formed in Harry's mind as he heard: "Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow"… "He's taking risks, this one!"… "Clever move - pity it didn't work!"  
  
And then, after about fifteen minutes, Harry heard the deafening roar that could mean only one thing: Cedric had gotten past his dragon and captured the golden egg.  
  
"Very good indeed!" Bagman was shouting. "And now the marks from the judges!"  
  
But he didn't shout out the marks; Harry supposed the judges were holding them up and showing them to the crowd.  
  
"One down, three to go!" Bagman yelled as the whistle blew again. "Miss Delacour, if you please!"  
  
Fleur was trembling from head to foot, but she left the tent with her head held high and her hand clutching her wand. She was going out there to succeed, and that was obvious.  
  
Harry and Viktor shared looks, but then went back to just listening as they tried to keep calm.  
  
The same process started again…"Oh I'm not sure that was wise!" they could hear Bagman shouting gleefully. "Oh… nearly! Careful now… good lord, I thought she'd had it then!"  
  
Ten minutes later, Harry heard the crowd erupt into applause once more… Fleur must have been successful, too. A pause, while Fleur's marks were being shown… more clapping… then, for the third time, the whistle.  
  
"And here comes Mr. Krum!" Bagman cried, and Viktor slouched out, leaving Harry quite alone.  
  
He felt much more aware of his body than usual; very aware of the way his heart was pumping fast, and his fingers tingling with fear… yet at the same time, he seemed to be outside himself, seeing the walls of the tent, and hearing the crowd, as though from far away.  
  
"Very daring!" Bagman was yelling, and Harry heard the Chinese Fireball emit a horrible, roaring shriek, while the crowd drew its collective breath. "That's some nerve he's showing - and - yes, he's got the egg!"  
  
Applause shattered the wintry air like breaking glass; Viktor had finished — it would be Harry's turn any moment.  
  
He stood up, noticing dimly that his legs seemed to be made of marshmallow. He waited. And then he heard the whistle blow. He walked out through the entrance of the tent, the panic rising into a crescendo inside him. And now he was walking past the trees, through a gap in the enclosure fence.  
  
He saw everything in front of him as though it was a very highly colored dream.  
  
There were hundreds and hundreds of faces staring down at him from stands that had been magicked there since he'd last stood on this spot. And there was the Horntail, at the other end of the enclosure, crouched low over her clutch of eggs, her wings half-furled, her evil, yellow eyes upon him, a monstrous, scaly, black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, heaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground.  
  
The crowd was making a great deal of noise, but whether friendly or not, Harry didn't know or care. It was time to do what he had to do…  
  
Harry pointed his wand at one of the rocks behind the Horntail, and he muttered the spell he had been practicing for three weeks, willing his mind to imagine the change. Smiling as he saw the wolf appear, Harry did it again until the Horntail was surrounded. She hadn’t tried to attack him as the wolves appearing had confused her greatly.  
  
Harry then transfigured some smaller rocks into birds so that they flew above the Horntail, confusing her even more. When that was done, Harry waved his wand and moved all the transfigured animals to one side of the arena, trying to draw the Horntail to them. She snapped at the birds flying around her head, her neck extending to follow them as they moved, small bursts of fire escaping between her teeth as she snarled.  
  
She moved just enough for Harry to spot the golden egg, and that was all he needed.  
  
Casting a Disillusionment Charm on himself, something he had been able to do since early in the summer, Harry began moving quietly around the Horntail to get a better angle while keeping the wolves just out of reach while the birds flew above her. Her tail was flying all over the place, fortunately just out of reach of the nest, trying to hit the wolves, which were dodging with all their worth. Bursts of fire were shot into the air, hitting three or four of the dozen birds flying around her. One of the wolves was on the ground, bleeding from getting hit by an unexpected swipe of the Horntail’s claws.  
  
Finally getting a good angle that gave him plenty of room, Harry conjured a rope. Using his wand after making sure the wolves knew what to do, Harry tied the rope to the egg before using a Removable Sticking Charm on it, attaching it to the egg. The rope was long enough for him to pull it if he had to, but Harry wanted to try Summoning it first.  
  
“ _Accio_ rope!” he hissed quietly, pointing his wand at the rope.  
  
His smile grew as the knot of the rope, which he had been aiming at, flew at him. Before he knew it, the egg was in his arms, and the Task was finished.  
  
"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling. "Will you look at that? Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mr. Potter!"  
  
Professor McGonagall turned the animals back into rocks while the dragon keepers began to regain control of the Horntail . Professor Snape was making his way over to Harry, who had taken off the Disillusionment Charm and pulled off the rope with his wand.  
  
“Well done, Potter,” he said with a nod, though Harry could have sworn his lips were twitching, trying not to smile.  
  
“Thanks Professor,” Harry said with a relieved grin, just glad that it was all over.  
  
“How did you know the Disillusionment Charm?” he asked, and Harry was a little startled.  
  
“In my home, not knowing it is a danger, seeing as it’s very rarely _not_ full of pranksters,” he told his Head of House, and Snape actually snorted. He knew very well what Harry meant by that.  
  
“Come so that the judges can put your scores up,” he said, leading Harry towards the judges, who he hadn’t seen sitting on the other side of the arena in raised seats draped in gold; the Horntail had hidden them.  
  
When they got near the judges, Harry’s friends were just getting there, so Snape left him. Hermione hugged him, followed by Daphne before Tracey and Ginny hugged him together. Blaise, Theo, Neville, and Draco were hitting him on the back, though Draco only did it once before backing off as so many were watching.  
  
They told him that Cedric had done something similar to him, but it hadn’t worked as well as Harry’s idea had. Otherwise, Harry’s friends just congratulated him and told him about the others and how they had done. Finally, it was time to see his scores.  
  
Madame Maxime raised her wand in the air. What looked like a long silver ribbon shot out of it, which twisted itself into a large nine.  
  
“If the others give you higher scores, it shows you that she was just trying to give you a slightly lower score to give Fleur a chance,” Blaise said quietly.  
  
Mr. Crouch came next. He shot a number ten into the air.  
  
Next, Dumbledore. He too put up a ten. The crowd was cheering harder than ever.  
  
Ludo Bagman gave Harry a ten as well.  
  
“I was right,” Blaise added after seeing the three fairest judges go.  
  
And now Karkaroff raised his wand. He paused for a moment, and then a number shot out of his wand too - seven.  
  
“I’ll give this to Madam Maxime,” Theo said. “At least she doesn’t let bias affect her _much_.”  
  
“She’s definitely better than Karkaroff,” Ginny agreed.  
  
“It also means you’re in the lead, Harry,” Tracey told him with a grin that he returned.  
  
“That’s true!” Theo exclaimed as he realized it. “Krum lost points because some of the eggs were smashed, Cedric got hurt, and Fleur got burned a bit. You were the only one unhurt who didn’t break anything during your turn.”  
  
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Harry said with a hint of sarcasm, making everyone else laugh as Theo blushed.  
  
Harry headed over to the hospital tent to see the others. Viktor was already there, and Harry was only allowed to join him with the other two Champions when Harry told Madam Pomfrey that he was only there to see the others.  
  
“You did vell, Harry,” Viktor told him as he sat down next to Fleur. They sat around Cedric, who was covered in a burn cream.  
  
“Thanks,” Harry replied.  
  
They all went quiet as Bagman joined them in the tent. Each of them had their eggs with them still, so he smiled at them.  
  
“Ah, good! I was just about to bring Diggory here over to the other tent, but if you’re all in here… You've got a nice long break before the Second Task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth - but we're giving you something to think about in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open… see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg - because it will tell you what the Second Task is, and enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"  
  
Mr. Bagman left the tent, leaving all the Champions staring down at their eggs in disbelief.  
  
“ _This_ is the clue to the next task?” Cedric finally asked.  
  
“Eet makes sense, een an odd way,” Fleur admitted.  
  
“Vin the First Task, get a clue for the second,” Viktor agreed while still looking at his egg.  
  
“Same idea as last time?” Harry asked, finally looking away from his own. “One of us figures it out, we all find out?”  
  
“Of course, eet is only fair eef we continue zis way,” Fleur said, and the other boys agreed.  
  
“Well, I’d better get going,” Harry sighed. “My friends are waiting. I’ll see you all later.”  
  
Harry met the others outside the tent and told them what Bagman had said. They all stared at him and the egg.  
  
“We’d best figure that out in the Room of Requirement,” Hermione finally said.  
  
“Yeah, but let’s go celebrate in The Den for the day!” Theo exclaimed. “He can work on it starting this weekend.”  
  
“Hey, Fleur, Viktor, Cedric!” Harry called, and all three came out of the tent, Cedric just released from Madam Pomfrey as Harry had left. “Party in The Den; wanna come?”  
  
“Sure,” Cedric said. “I’ll bring my friends along.”  
  
“Very vell,” Viktor agreed, heading over to the Durmstrang students.  
  
“I zink eet will be more fun that way,” Fleur said with a nod, going to get her friends as well.  
  
“This is going to be brilliant,” Theo sighed happily, probably already imagining the food and everything else at the party. Harry just laughed at his friend and shook his head.

…

Harry sighed happily as he watched everyone interacting in The Den, a Butterbeer in his hand. The couch dipping beside him was the only notice he got of Tracey joining him, though he didn’t react.  
  
“It’s nice, isn’t it?” she asked, and Harry didn’t even have to ask to know that she meant watching The Den being used after all the work they had put into it.  
  
“Very,” he agreed. There were no words to describe what he was feeling as he watched people from all the Houses and all the schools interact as if they were old friends and no rivalries existed. Even some of the older students were acting as if they had Journals.  
  
“You survived and succeeded with the best score,” Tracey said, and she placed a hand on his right arm so that he would look at her. As green eyes met blue, Harry could see the worry she had felt the entire time he had been up against the Horntail, but he could also see the relief and pride she felt now that it was over.  
  
“Only because you and Ginny helped me, but yes, I did,” he replied as he turned to watch some Durmstrang students playing a game of Gobstones with a large audience.  
  
“Speaking of Ginny…” Tracey said slowly, and Harry groaned internally while closing his eyes.  
  
“Not this again,” he sighed. “Why is it that you’re all pushing this at random times?”  
  
“Because you two…” Tracey paused, obviously trying to find the words. “The only way to describe it is that you’re perfect for one another — two pieces of a puzzle that fit perfectly together.”  
  
“So you’re all annoying me about her because you think we should already be dating?” Harry asked to make sure the idea she had just given him was correct.  
  
“Basically,” Tracey said with a nod.  
  
“You’re never going to leave me alone, then,” he groaned. Of course, Harry wasn’t going to mention that he had already asked Ginny to go to the Yule Ball with him. It was just so much fun to torture them all.  
  
“Seriously, Harry, why are you holding back?” Tracey sighed. He didn’t even have to turn to know that her eyes were closed and a hand was pinching the bridge of her nose.  
  
“Six older brothers and the fact that she’s only thirteen aren’t good enough reasons?” he asked. Tracey’s hair actually hit his cheek because she was so close and turned so fast to face him after he said that. That finally got him to look at her, and he almost laughed at the look of shocked disbelief on her face.  
  
“ _That’s_ why you haven’t asked her out yet?” she demanded. “You, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, Hogwarts Champion, Leader of Leaders, are _scared_?”  
  
“Maybe?” Harry retorted, though internally he was trying not to laugh. Truthfully, he wasn’t worried about her brothers, and he knew that Ginny wouldn’t care about their ages if she could go out with him.  
  
“You — Are — An — _Idiot_!” Tracey exclaimed quietly, trying not to draw attention to herself. Harry just laughed at his almost-twin.  
  
“I guess I am,” he agreed with a shrug. “I mean, you tell me that so often that is _has_ to be true, right?”  
  
“Oh great, your sarcastic side is back,” Tracey muttered, and Harry flashed her a smile .  
  
“Anything that’ll get you to stop is fair game,” he stated with a smirk, and she groaned quietly. “Can you just lay off of it for today?” he asked in a way that only she would recognize as begging unless he truly begged. “I just want to enjoy the victory today; annoy me tomorrow, if you can.”  
  
“Fine, but only because of the Tournament,” Tracey agreed before standing up to go get another Butterbeer for herself. “Enjoy yourself.”  
  
As Tracey left, Ginny took her spot. She looked between him and Tracey with a curious look before shaking her head gently.  
  
“You two seemed to be having an intense conversation,” she observed.  
  
“Seems I’m going to be annoyed by everyone until I get my head out of my arse and ask you out,” Harry stated as he turned away from Ginny and went back to watching the others.  
  
“Makes sense now that the Task is out of the way,” she said, and he turned just enough to raise an eyebrow in her direction. “I mean, they wouldn’t want to distract you from the Task, but now that it’s done, they can attack you about the Yule Ball as well as me without worry as the Second Task is in February.”  
  
“That’s not all that reassuring,” he murmured, and Ginny laughed lightly.  
  
“I know it’s not, but it’s the reason why they’ve kept quiet up until now,” she said.  
  
“Oh joy,” he muttered under his breath. “So, should we go visit Sebae after classes tomorrow and see what she has to say about the Task?”  
  
“Meet you half an hour after the end of the last class outside the entrance?” she returned, both of them talking in a way that wouldn’t allow anyone to understand what they were talking about.  
  
“Better give it another fifteen minutes, if what Tracey claims is true,” Harry sighed. “They won’t let me go as easily if they’re trying to question me about stuff; I’ve seen that much before.”  
  
“I’ll be waiting at half an hour after, but I won’t expect you until a quarter ‘til at the earliest, okay?” Ginny said with a giggle.  
  
“Deal,” Harry agreed with a smile, and they went quiet, searching the room for their friends to see what they were doing.  
  
Ginny spotted Ron crushing anyone willing to play him at Wizard’s Chess while Graham had control of the Muggle game Risk over at another table of six players. Harry pointed out that Susan was beating Justin at Gobstones, and Demelza was in the lead for a new game that had been set up that counted the number of hits each person got on a target in one of the practice rooms if they set off the game.  
  
Food was all over the room, and everyone had something to drink while house-elves were cleaning up Butterbeer bottles where they could without getting hurt.  
  
Someone had thought to bring a wireless into the room, and music was playing loudly throughout the area. A few people were even dancing to it, just for something to do.  
  
Suddenly, a few people turned into canaries after eating a snack, and Harry knew that the twins had managed to slip one of their candy pranks into a bowl of sweets that people were eating.  
  
Ginny pointed out Hermione who had a book and was in the corner reading it while occasionally looking up to observe The Den. A couple of Ravenclaws were also reading, but most students were just relaxing.  
  
Harry saw Neville and a few others over in the corner taking care of the non-magical plants Professor Sprout had put into the room for the students to care for.  
  
Harry knew, just looking around, that everyone was relaxed and happy at the moment, and that made him happy. Just being able to watch something like this made the work put into The Den worth it.  
  
Watching most of the school release and enjoying themselves, Harry relaxed and drank his Butterbeer, truly enjoying the party just by being able to sit back and watch.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

“ _H_ _ow did the challenge go_?” Sebae asked as Harry and Ginny settled down on her.

“ _I got through without getting hurt,_ ” Harry replied with a sigh.  
  
“ _Where’s the egg, Harry_?” Ginny asked, looking at him as if expecting him to pull it out of his school bag. “ _I was hoping to get a chance to check it out._ ”  
  
“ _I left it in the dorm. Trust me, you don’t want to open the thing._ ” Harry shuddered as he remembered the noise the golden egg made when opened. “ _It makes the worst noise possible. Your eardrums feel like they’re going to burst from that one noise._ ”  
  
“ _Bring it down here next time, okay_?” Ginny requested, and Harry had to wonder if she had even heard his description of the noise. “ _Down here it won’t bother anyone, and we can put charms on our ears so that it doesn’t seem as loud._ ” It seemed she had heard him, then.  
  
“ _Fine_ ,” he sighed. “ _Anyway, Sebae, that task was one of the hardest things I’ve ever faced. I’m worried about the next task if that was only the first. What am I going to do_?”  
  
“ _Are you really that worried, Harry_?” Ginny asked, and Harry watched as her face began to show the shock she was feeling; he knew she had never expected this.  
  
“ _Ginny, I’m fourteen, competing against three people three years older than me, this Tournament is known for Champions dying, and I was just up against a bloody dragon — I’m pretty sure anyone would be worried and freaking out!_ ” Harry retorted. As he replied, her face changed from shock to amazement to understanding, though Harry knew Ginny was still shocked and also hadn’t thought of it like that.  
  
“ _I think I may be able to help,_ ” Sebae hissed before Ginny could say anything. “ _In the statue there is a book that makes a copy for each Chosen Heir, but Salazar told me not to give it to the Heir until he or she had proven his or herself, and you have proven yourself, Harry. You got around a dragon, and you’ve certainly earned your title as the Chosen Heir. Please wait for a few moments._ ”  
  
Harry and Ginny quickly got off the basilisk as she made her way into the statue, which Harry had left open at her request back in his second year. When she returned, there was a book on her head between her eyes. Lowering her head, Sebae allowed Harry to grab the book.  
  
Looking down at it, Harry saw that it was a black book that was well preserved, most likely by a spell. Everything in it was hand-written, but it was quite neat and easy to read. Just skimming, Harry saw it was spells and a few potions, each one of them created by Salazar Slytherin. Realizing this, Harry gaped up at Sebae.  
  
“ _Sebae, this was written by Salazar_!” he exclaimed, and the giant snake laughed a snake’s laugh.  
  
“ _Of course, who did you think had written it? Godric?_ ” Harry had to agree that that one was a bit amusing, but he was still in shock that he actually had a copy of a book written by a Founder. “ _The book holds many spells you can learn to help you with the challenges. They shall also help in case of a threat to Hogwarts_.”  
  
“ _Thanks Sebae,_ ” Harry hissed as he and Ginny began to study the first spell in the book carefully, both a bit awed at the chance to actually be permitted to see something like this.  
  
“ _This is amazing,_ ” Ginny said almost silently, and Harry nodded in agreement.  
  
“ _When we’re alone in the Room, we’re practicing these,_ ” he stated, and Ginny looked up at him long enough to silently agree.

…

“You asked to see me, Professor?” Harry asked as he slid into the seat in front of Snape’s desk, his bag now on the floor. It was quite normal for this to happen whenever Harry was called to his Head of House’s office; hours of being in there hearing stories always left a mark.  
  
“I did,” Snape said in a neutral voice, his face blank. “You have, of course, heard of the Yule Ball?”  
  
Harry nodded. The day before, Professor McGonagall had told his Transfiguration class about it, though no one was surprised as all of their families had already known about it and told them.  
  
“As a Champion, you and your date will be opening up the dancing,” Snape said, and Harry looked up at him, a bit surprised, but not all that shocked. When he thought about it, that sort of thing would be obvious, seeing as he was a Champion.  
  
“Of course, Professor,” he replied with a nod, keeping his face blank as he tried not to think about how annoying this was going to be.  
  
“Do not embarrass Slytherin or Hogwarts while at the Ball, Potter,” Snape added. “You do, of course, know how to dance, correct?”  
  
“Yes, sir,” Harry replied, thinking of the hours spent during the summers at Tracey’s house learning to dance after both his first and second year; they had been a nightmare.  
  
“Very well,” Snape said, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips, and Harry knew very few students would ever even get to see that, let alone the smiles Harry had seen before. “Be sure to get a good partner, then.”  
  
“Does she have to be from Slytherin?” Harry asked with a raised eyebrow, wondering what his Head of House would think.  
  
“Just be sure she won’t embarrass you, Slytherin, her House, or Hogwarts,” was all Snape said as he gestured for Harry to leave.  
  
Harry had a feeling, as he left the office, that Snape knew _exactly_ who he was taking to the Ball, even if his friends hadn’t figured it out yet.

…

“Ugh,” Harry groaned as he threw himself onto the couch next to Tracey in The Den after talking with Snape about the Ball.  
  
“What did Snape want?” Theo asked curiously, looking up from the chessboard he and Blaise were playing on to glance as Harry for a moment or two.  
  
“To talk about the Ball,” Harry sighed, leaning his head against the back of the couch as he closed his eyes. “Turns out the Champions _must_ have a date so that we can open up the dancing after dinner.”  
  
“So does that mean you’re going to ask -” Theo began.  
  
“Don’t even think about it,” Harry warned his friend, his eyes flashing open and his head shooting up to look at the boy.  
  
“-Ginny?” Theo finished as if Harry hadn’t interrupted him at all.  
  
“What is it with you all and telling me to ask Ginny out?” Harry groaned, and Daphne turned to look at Tracey, both of whom had a book in their laps.  
  
“I thought you already explained it,” Daphne said with a raised eyebrow.  
  
“I did, but you know Harry,” Tracey replied with a shrug.  
  
“Oh come on, don’t tell me the reason I’m being attacked about this is because you lot think Ginny and I would make a good couple!” Harry moaned, but all four of his friends gave him looks that told him it should be obvious that’s the reason. “Joy, I’m going to be tortured just because my friends think they know best.”  
  
“Pretty much, if you have to look at it that way,” Blaise said with a smirk that Theo shared while Daphne smiled and Tracey gave Harry an amused look.  
  
“Great, just great,” Harry muttered under his breath too quietly for the others to hear as the girls went back to reading and the boys to their game.

…

Harry signed on invisibly at the time he and Ginny had agreed on, using the colored Journal section to do it. She was already on, so the conversation started right away.  
  
**_Harry: They’re getting annoying again.  
  
Ginny: AGAIN? *Sighs deeply* When are they going to stop annoying us about this?  
  
Harry: Who knows? Our lovely friends seem to have it in their heads that we should already be a couple, so they’re not going to let it go, especially now that I’ve told them about the Champions having to open the dancing at the Ball.  
  
Ginny: I heard about that. Going to be fun, isn’t it?  
  
Harry: Oh, be quiet._**  
  
Harry glanced at the normal conversation and almost broke out laughing as he saw the conversation.  
  
**_Harry: Ginny, you HAVE to check out the normal conversation going on. Just read it for a bit._**  
  
_Theo: He’s still being an idiot._  
  
_Draco: *Groans* Still? When is he going to use his brain?_  
  
_Luna: I haven’t_ seen _any Wrackspurts around him…  
  
Hermione: What does that even mean, Luna?  
  
Tracey: *Mutters quietly as eyes widen*  
  
Daphne: Trace? Something up?  
  
Tracey: Nothing. Just figured out something for Ancient Runes. I’ve been trying to figure out how to remember the last rune on the homework, and I just got an idea.  
  
**Harry: Aw man! Tracey’s figured it out.  
  
Ginny: She has?**  
  
Daphne: If you’re sure… Anyway, Harry needs to ask her, now. If he doesn’t have a date to the Ball, he’s going to get into a lot of trouble.  
  
**Harry: Definitely sure. Her eyes widened, and I’m willing to bet the muttering was along the lines of “Why that sneaky little git” or something like that. She realized that I’ve been playing them for a while now, and I’m not a blind, dumb idiot.**  
  
Maya: Why?  
  
Blaise: He just told us earlier that, as a Champion, he has to open up the dancing along with the other three and their partners, which means he has to have a date.  
  
**Ginny: Man… took her longer than I was expecting.  
  
Harry: You owe me three Galleons, remember? I said it wouldn’t be until December, but you said earlier.**  
  
Padma: Do you think he’s going to ask her before then?  
  
Twins: He’d better!  
  
**Ginny: Damn… I’m going to hurt Tracey for this one. I’ll give you the money tomorrow.  
  
Harry: Fine, but I’ll be waiting. Wait… was that your brothers actually saying I had better ask you to the Ball?  
  
Ginny: I think it was… Wow.**  
  
Daphne: Is there a way for us to push them together?  
  
Draco: Well… We could talk girls with Harry and see how he reacts to it… Plus, some subtle hinting might help.  
  
**Harry: *Smirks* Oh, I’m going to enjoy THAT one. Use it to figure out how to annoy the guys will be fun.  
  
Ginny: Let’s see what the girls plan on…**  
  
Hermione: I know we’ve already been hinting at Ginny, but she just rolls her eyes and either changes the subject or continues what she had been doing. Maybe we should just talk with her, like you’re planning on doing with Harry.  
  
**Ginny: *Bursts out laughing* I have to agree with you. This is going to be FUN!  
  
Harry: Should we try pairing our friends up for the Ball while pretending I’ve got a date and you’re not going?  
  
Ginny: Sounds like a plan, and a fun one at that.**  
  
Tracey: *Mutters quietly in a sing-song voice* That’s not going to _ work. _  
  
Theo: Fine, then, what’s your idea?  
  
Tracey: Leave them alone?  
  
**Harry: I sort of like that idea, except messing with them will be fun.  
  
Ginny: *Nods***  
  
Hermione: Then Harry won’t ask Ginny at all, seeing as he’s known since the summer and _ still _hasn’t asked her yet.  
  
Tracey: *Mutters but doesn’t say anything more*  
  
**Harry: Good, she’s keeping it to herself. She’ll help us trick them, now.  
  
Ginny: How do you know?  
  
Harry: Since she knows I’ve already asked, she can tell that we’re just annoyed with all of this, so she’s quite willing to help us out. I mean, we were the best during the summer, remember?  
  
Ginny: Ah.**  
  
Draco: Hey, does anyone know where Harry and Ginny are?  
  
Hermione: Her dorm.  
  
Tracey: His dorm.  
  
Draco: Oh, okay, so they’re probably doing homework or something.  
  
**Both: *Bursts out laughing***_

…

Tracey pulled Harry into his dorm after dinner the next evening, and he sighed. All day she had been glaring at him when no one was looking, so he knew he was in for a telling off from his almost-twin for not telling her about asking Ginny to the Ball.  
  
“You asked her to the Ball and didn’t tell me?!” she yelled, outraged, once the silencing charms were on the room and Harry had sat down on his bed.  
  
Harry just shrugged as he pulled the three Galleons Ginny had given him at breakfast out of this pocket, playing around with them in his hands without really realizing it.  
  
“We wanted to see how long it you take out to figure it out,” he finally admitted, a little sheepish as he played with the gold.  
  
“Is that why Ginny gave you that money this morning?” Tracey asked, nodding at Harry’s hands, and he looked down, startled as he realized what he was doing.  
  
“Oh, yeah, it is,” he said, putting the gold on his bedside table. “We bet three Galleons. I said you’d figure it out in December after the Ball was announced, but Ginny thought it would be before the first task.”  
  
“So wait a second, you actually bet that it would take me this long to figure it out?” Tracey demanded, and Harry smirked slightly.  
  
“I just had a feeling,” he said with a shrug, and Tracey threw her hands in the air as she hissed quietly. Finally, she just sat down next to Harry on his bed, leaning her head on his shoulder.  
  
“When?” she asked, and Harry knew she meant _when did you ask her?_  
  
“This summer,” he told her, and Harry knew she was surprised by how she stiffened at the news.  
  
“That long ago?” she sighed after a moment, admitting defeat that Harry and Ginny had pulled one on her quite well.  
  
“That long ago,” he agreed with a nod. “Ever since I first learned of it.”  
  
“Great, just great,” Tracey muttered into his shoulder, “you both have managed to keep this from me for almost half a year.” She sighed softly. “Oh well, as long as you did ask her out.”  
  
“I did,” Harry confirmed, before an idea came to him. “And now that you know who I’m going to the Ball with, who are _you_ hoping to go with?”  
  
Tracey’s head flew up quickly as her blue eyes stared into Harry’s green ones. Harry could tell by the look in her eyes that she was shocked he had asked, but she was also worried about telling him — or anyone, really. Then, she looked down at the emerald green bedding they were sitting on, and Harry knew he had to talk.  
  
“Come on, Trace, it’s me,” he said softly. “I’m not going to tell anyone — except maybe Ginny, and you know she’ll keep it quiet. Besides, I might be able to help.”  
  
“Theo,” she said so quietly Harry almost didn’t hear her. When he did hear what she had said, Harry was a bit taken aback, but then realized only Tracey could tell him why.  
  
“Why Theo?” he asked, curious but not letting much of it show as he knew she didn’t need that at that very moment. Tracey just shrugged slightly before replying.  
  
“We’ve known each other for so long… We’re close in a way that’s different than you and me. It’s hard to explain it, though.”  
  
Harry knew what she meant. Over the years, he had noticed it had been Theo who had figured things out about Tracey the quickest after him, sometimes even beating him. Plus, Tracey may not have ever noticed this, but Theo watched her. Oh, not constantly, but he would rather watch Tracey than any of the others when the group was doing something.  
  
Thinking back even more, Harry remembered how Tracey and Theo would always mess around when transformed. Plus, the forest on the walls of his room back at home had some of the most interesting interaction between the pair.  
  
“I think I get it,” he said softly with a smile. “Just so you know, I have a feeling Theo is thinking the same thing, but I’ll see what I can find out from him.”  
  
“Really?” Tracey asked quickly, and Harry knew she was surprised.  
  
Harry just smiled at her, and he knew she understood what he was saying silently.

…

“ _Take the egg and go to the Chamber with it soon_?” Harry hissed to Ginny quietly, Ankh peeking out of his robe to listen to the pair as they made plans that the others couldn’t understand.  
  
“ _Saturday after training,_ ” Ginny replied just as quietly. “ _We can tell them that we’ve got an idea for the egg we want to try._ ”  
  
“ _Tracey will want to come, even if we can convince the others to leave us alone,_ ” Harry reminded her, and Ginny lightly hit herself on the head while looking at him with a sarcastic look on her face.  
  
“ _I_ knew _that_ ,” she hissed. “ _We can just say that we’re using the egg as an excuse to talk about the Ball, seeing as she already knows the truth_.”  
  
Harry didn’t say anything, and that was all Ginny needed to know that she had won.

…

“Harry, any girls you fancy at school?” Draco asked, and Harry almost hit him upside the head for being so blunt before he realized how he could use the introduction to his advantage.  
  
“Nah, not really,” Harry replied with a wave over a hand. “How about you? Any girls you fancy, Draco?” Much to Harry’s amusement, Blaise and Theo immediately jumped into the conversation.  
  
“Yeah, Draco, who do _you_ fancy?” Theo drawled.  
  
“You haven’t told us, and we’ve been asking for days now!” Blaise added.  
  
“No one,” Draco muttered darkly, glaring at all three of them, but that was the wrong answer.  
  
“Oh, come on, Draco, we _know_ you fancy somebody,” Blaise said. “It’s so obvious by the look on your face right now!”  
  
“I’m not interested in anyone!” Draco exclaimed, much to Harry’s amusement. “Not like she’d fancy me anyway,” he muttered under his breath, but Harry caught it as he was the closest to the blond.  
  
“Who wouldn’t be into you anyway?” he asked quickly, and Draco glared at Harry while Blaise and Theo looked at Draco in even more interest than before, if it was possible.  
  
“Theo, who do you fancy?” Draco asked, obviously changing the subject, but Harry allowed him as he was interested in Theo as well.  
  
“Yeah, Theo, who do you fancy?” Harry asked with an evil smirk on his face that he knew was worrying his friend as the look never meant anything good for the recipient.  
  
“Nobody,” Theo muttered, but Harry wasn’t having it. It was obvious by the look in the boy’s brown eyes that he was unwilling to admit who he fancied in front of present company.  
  
“Oh come on,” Harry groaned, “don’t tell me that the girl who is basically my twin is nobody.”  
  
Theo froze as he stared at Harry in shock, and Harry felt the surprised gazes of Draco and Blaise on the two of them as well. All Harry did was smirk at Theo, knowing that the look on the boy’s face was all the confirmation he needed to know that he was correct.  
  
“How — how did you…?” Theo couldn’t even finish his stuttered question, and it made Harry’s smirk grow.  
  
“You make it obvious to the few who pay attention, especially someone who is close to Tracey,” was all Harry said for an answer, but it was all Theo needed as the boy’s head fell into his hands.  
  
“She’ll never like me back, though,” Theo suddenly muttered, and Harry raised an eyebrow as he realized Theo _wanted_ to ask Tracey to the Ball, but it would take a lot of persuasion to make it happen.  
  
“Just ask, Theo,” Draco said. “You never know what’ll happen if you do.”  
  
“I’ll get rejected,” Theo said as he looked up at the others. “It’s not worth it. I’d rather keep my dignity and just go alone than ask her and get turned down.”  
  
“And if she goes with someone else?” Harry asked, having to know for Tracey’s sake. That question seemed to make Theo freeze, as if he had never even contemplated the idea of her finding another date.  
  
“I — I’m not sure,” he admitted, and that was all Harry needed to know to begin making plans. He knew it would take Tracey to make them happen, so he would need to talk with his almost-twin very soon.  
  
“Well, Blaise, it seems you’re the last one,” Harry said to give his friend a break. “Who are you planning on asking?”  
  
“I’ve already asked Daphne just before coming in here,” Blaise said, looking satisfied.  
  
“Nice job, mate!” Theo said happily, though Harry knew they all could see the sadness in his eyes that his friend got his choice date when Theo thought he wouldn’t even have a chance with his. Harry knew he was going to have to change that.  
  
Until then, Harry had Blaise to congratulate and Draco to try and pry information out of, so he had things to keep him busy.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

“Come on, open the egg!” Ginny said, trying to get Harry to give in, but he was shaking his head.

“Not until we’re in the Chamber,” he said firmly. “The thing makes too much noise; trust me on that one.”  
  
“Fine,” Ginny sighed, and Harry silently sighed in relief.  
  
They were almost to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom after hours of training in the Room of Requirement. Harry had his egg in his hands, and both of them had weapons hidden all over their bodies.  
  
Soon enough, they were in the Chamber where Sebae was waiting for them, Ankh already down there as he had decided to spend the weekend with her.  
  
“ _I wish to hear this egg you have told me of_ ,” Sebae hissed, and Harry sighed as he placed the egg on the ground.  
  
“ _Okay, I’ll open it now, but please realize that the noise is loud and terrible,_ ” he sighed, and Ginny smiled.  
  
Harry dug his fingernails into the groove that ran all the way around it and pried it open. It was hollow and completely empty - but the moment Harry opened it, the most horrible noise, a loud and screechy wailing, filled the Chamber. He only held it open for about ten seconds before snapping it shut, his ears ringing.  
  
“ _What was_ that?” Ginny hissed in disbelief as she stared at the egg, her hands moving away from her ears as Harry looked up.  
  
“ _I have no idea,_ ” Harry replied, shaking his head as he let go of the egg and shook his head to get the sound of out it.  
  
“ _I have heard that sound before, many years ago, when Salazar was still my master,_ ” Sebae said, and Harry turned to face the basilisk quickly.  
  
“ _Where, and do you know what it says or what’s saying it?_ ” he asked quickly, and Sebae began laughing.  
  
“ _Calm down, Harry. The sound came from the lake, and Salazar told me that it was from the merpeople living down there at the time. I cannot understand it, but I recognize the sound. If I had to guess, I would say that there are still merpeople down in the lake, and that is where you will most likely have to go for the challenge._ ”  
  
Harry stared at Sebae’s yellow eyes as it all sank in, shocked by what she had told them.  
  
“ _Does that mean I should listen to the egg under water?_ ” Harry wondered aloud.  
  
“ _Sounds reasonable,_ ” Ginny said. “ _It won’t really work down here, and I’m not sure about Slytherin, but there aren’t any baths for the boys in Gryffindor._ ”  
  
Harry shook his head as he said, “ _Not in Slytherin either._ ”  
  
“ _Well, you need to figure out a place to figure out the egg, then._ ”  
  
“ _I’ll talk to Cedric and see what he says. Wait! He’s a Prefect, and don’t they have their own bathroom?_ ”  
  
“ _You’re right!_ ” Ginny exclaimed. “ _It’s probably got a proper bath in there. Talk to Cedric sometime soon and see._ ”  
  
“ _Of course,_ ” Harry said with a smile. “ _Thanks so much, Sebae! This is a huge help._ ”  
  
“ _I’m just glad I could help, Harry,_ ” Sebae hissed softly as she licked him on the cheek, making Harry and Ginny smile.

…

“Come on, Trace, you know you want him to ask you to the Ball,” Harry said again, trying to get her to agree with his idea.  
  
“I do, but not like that!” she exclaimed, looking horrified by the idea.  
  
“Trace, trust me on this one, please,” Harry begged, and she calmed down to look at him again. “Theo is afraid you’ll reject him, so he doesn’t plan on asking you at all.” Harry held up a hand as she made to interrupt. “But when I asked what would happen if someone else asked you, he hesitated, as if he hadn’t thought about it before. I’m willing to bet that, if someone asked you in front of him, he’d act and ask you, especially if it was someone he knew you would be willing to go with.”  
  
“And that’s why you’re asking me to do this,” she finished, finally figuring out what Harry had planned. “Alright, I’ll do it, but you’d better make sure Ginny knows what’s going on!”  
  
“Oh, she does,” he said with a smirk. “She actually pushed me to tell you the idea and do it when I told her about it. Trust me, she wants me to do this badly. Now, if she didn’t know that you’d say no, she wouldn’t have pushed me to do it, but all of us know what you’re going to say.”  
  
“Fine, we’ll do it tomorrow,” Tracey said with a sigh before smiling gently.

…

“ _Tracey says to ask her soon,_ ” Ginny hissed quietly to Harry, and he nodded in acknowledgement of the message. Ginny and Tracey were writing in a Journal conversation instead of aloud so that Tracey could keep calm.  
  
“Have you gotten anywhere with the egg?” Hermione suddenly asked Harry, and he looked up, a bit startled.  
  
“I’ve got an idea right now, but I have to test it first,” he admitted. “Actually, I was planning on asking Cedric if he wanted to try my idea with me. Maybe I’ll catch him on the way to class and see.”  
  
“What’s your idea?” Padma asked, quite interested.  
  
“I’ll only tell you if it works,” Harry teased, and Padma, Hermione, and Terry all looked disappointed.  
  
“Anyone else get asked to the Ball?” Ginny asked the group, and Harry smirked as he realized this was their way of leading into the plan.  
  
“Justin asked me,” Padma admitted with a slight blush as the girls started talking with her, asking how he had asked and that sort of thing.  
  
“ _Ask Tracey now, while Theo is bored and watching,_ ” Ginny hissed, and Harry smirked for just a moment before tapping Tracey on the shoulder.  
  
“Hey, Trace,” he said as she turned, and Harry knew she was just waiting. “I was wondering if you’d be my date to the Yule Ball — as non-related siblings, of course,” he said hesitantly, making it realistic enough that even the girls had stopped bothering Padma to stare at him in shock.  
  
Harry glanced at Theo, and he had to hold in a smirk as he saw his friend’s jaw had tightened, and Theo was glaring at Harry. Of course, there was also a look in Theo’s eyes that said he was worried about Tracey’s answer and that _he_ wanted to be the one to ask her and go with her. _Mission accomplished_ , Harry thought as the jealousy in Theo was obvious.  
  
“I…” Tracey said slowly, playing the shocked almost-twin. “Can I think about it and get back to you?” she asked, barely glancing at Theo as she said it, only Harry noticing it as he had been waiting for it. Then, Harry noticed the little light of shock in Theo’s eyes, and he understood that Theo had caught the look too.  
  
“Sure, but can you get back to me at dinner so I don’t have to wait a week?” Harry asked, going along with the plan of giving Theo a time limit to ask Tracey in.  
  
“I’ll talk to you at dinner, then,” Tracey said before grabbing her bag and going off somewhere to sit and think before their free period.  
  
“You — you’re asking _Tracey_ to the Ball?” Daphne finally asked, obviously shocked by the turn of events.  
  
“I know I’ll have fun if I go with Tracey, so I asked,” Harry said with a shrug. Next to him, Ginny was shaking with silent laughter while pretending to read her Journal, which Tracey was still using to talk to her .  
  
“ _Nicely done,_ ” Ginny complimented when she finally got her laughter under control.  
  
“ _Thanks,_ ” he replied. “ _It took some work._ ”  
  
“Hey, Theo, why don’t you go find Tracey and talk with her?” Harry asked, gesturing to Ginny’s Journal to remind Theo that he had a Map. “I don’t think she’ll want to talk to me right now, but she’ll need someone to talk to, and you’re the next closest to her after me.”  
  
Theo just nodded as he grabbed his bag and left the Great Hall. Once he was gone, Harry and Ginny shared high-fives with proud smiles on their faces. Around them, everyone else was confused, which amused the pair to no end.  
  
“Okay, what just happened here?” Hermione demanded as Harry took a drink from his goblet.  
  
“Tracey and Theo fancy each other,” Ginny explained as Harry swallowed.  
  
“But Theo was too afraid to ask her to the Ball, so we decided to make him jealous so that he’d ask,” Harry finished with a smirk.  
  
“So… you asking Tracey to the Ball was all… planned?” Daphne asked in disbelief, and Harry nodded with a smile.  
  
“You’re evil,” Blaise said. “You’re definitely good, but you’re also evil.”  
  
Harry and Ginny just smirked at Blaise.

…

Tracey sat at her normal place by the lake, which she went to when she wanted to be alone. She had just signed off of her Journal when Ginny said that Theo had left the Hall. Now she had her Map open and was watching Theo slowly make his way towards her, stopping constantly, as if unsure of what he was doing.  
  
Finally, Theo walked up behind her, and Tracey turned around to look at him. Blue met brown as their eyes met, and Tracey smiled slightly as she saw the nervousness in them, but she could also see jealousy and determination. Before, she would have been confused by the emotions he was showing, but Harry had told her about what Theo had said the other day, and she understood it a lot better now.  
  
“Hey,” she said softly, gesturing to the spot beside her, and Theo sat down.  
  
“Are you okay?” he asked, and Tracey just shrugged, unable to voice her thoughts. “Trace…” he said in the voice Tracey knew to mean that she had to say something or he’d force it out of her in some way.  
  
“I’m just confused, Theo,” she sighed, looking out over the lake.  
  
“Are you thinking about Harry’s question?” Theo asked softly, and Tracey heard the worried note in his voice, though very few would hear it besides her as not many knew Theo as she did. Though Tracey spent much of her time with Harry and Ginny, she also spent a lot of it with Theo; she had for years.  
  
“Well, I’ll admit that going with him would be fun, but…” Tracey trailed off, unsure if she should continue.  
  
“But what?” Theo asked, answering the question for her.  
  
“But I was hoping someone else would ask me to go with him, and he hasn’t asked yet. If he doesn’t ask…” Tracey shrugged. “Going with Harry won’t be terrible.”  
  
“Trace, I — I don’t want you to go with Harry to the Ball,” Theo said in a rush, and Tracey turned to face him, an eyebrow raised as she looked at him with a challenge in her crystal blue eyes.  
  
“Oh? And why is that?” she said in a tone that made Theo gulp, but she was proud when he rushed on, ignoring her icy tone to say what he had been working up his courage to do.  
  
“Because — because _I_ want to be the one to go with you,” he admitted.  
  
“Well, if that’s how you’re going to ask me…” she said, trying not to smile.  
  
“No!” Theo exclaimed before backtracking. “I mean — Tracey, will you go to the Yule Ball with me?” The look on his face showed fear and worry, but he was also waiting, though Tracey didn’t know if it was for rejection or acceptance, just that he was ready for it.  
  
“Of course I will, Theo,” she said, a smile beginning to grow on her face. “You were the person I was hoping would ask,” she added in a whisper. And Theo’s head flew up to stare at her in disbelief, but Tracey smiled at her friend and put her hand on top of his on the ground between them.  
  
“You were waiting for me?” he asked, the same disbelief on his face in his voice.  
  
“Of course,” Tracey said with a laugh, amused that he hadn’t noticed now that it was all over and she could relax. “I’ve fancied you since second year, really. Just kept it well hidden.”  
  
“Oh… well…” Theo couldn’t think of what to say, but then something came back to his mind. “Wait, what about Harry?”  
  
“What about him?” Tracey asked with a smile, wondering how he would react to the truth.  
  
“He — he just asked you to the Ball, but you said yes to me instead of even thinking about going with him,” Theo began, but he stopped when Tracey laughed properly.  
  
“Theo, he asked me so that _you_ would ask me,” she said through her laughter. “We talked about what you told him, and he convinced me that it would be the only way to get you to ask me, so I went along with it. Why do you think he asked you to come out here instead of telling Daphne or even Ginny?”  
  
“You mean this was all _planned_?” Theo demanded, and Tracey nodded, still laughing slightly. “All of this, even Harry asking you, was just so that I would ask you to the Ball?”  
  
“Basically,” Tracey said, her laughter finally gone.  
  
“I’d kill Harry if it wasn’t for the fact that he only did this to help both of us,” Theo sighed eventually.  
  
“Come on, Harry will want to know that you asked,” Tracey said as she stood up and pulled on his hand, not letting go as she led him back to the castle.

…

“Hey, Cedric, can I talk to you for a minute?” Harry asked, walking up behind the Hufflepuff at his table at breakfast. The seventh year was done eating, so he nodded and told his friends he’d see them in class before following Harry out of the Great Hall and onto the grounds.  
  
“What’s up, Harry?” he asked, but Harry kept walking until they were away from windows, the doors, and any other students. “Okay, what’s going on, Harry? Why are you being so secretive?”  
  
“We’re not supposed to be helping one another with the Tasks, I’m pretty sure,” Harry said, and Cedric’s mouth opened in surprise before he nodded. “Anyway, I have to ask you something.” Cedric nodded for him to go on. “Does the Prefects’ bathroom have an actual bath or only showers?” The Hufflepuff blinked.  
  
“That’s a random question, but there are both,” he replied. “The bath is more like a pool, though, so most of us share it and just swim at times.”  
  
“Great!” Harry exclaimed; it was perfect. “Look, can you get me in there one evening without anyone else there? You can come too, but I need a bath.”  
  
“What for?” Cedric asked.  
  
“I think we need to open the eggs under water to hear what they’re really saying,” Harry admitted. “If we can use the Prefects’ bathroom, we can figure out the clue together before telling Viktor and Fleur what we think they should do.”  
  
“Meet me in the Entrance Hall at seven-thirty tonight,” Cedric decided. “If people are in there, I can just ask them to leave. Bring a swimsuit if you want, but otherwise, just use your tricks so that no one can see you until we’re the only ones in there, okay?”  
  
“Sure thing,” Harry said with a smile. “Thanks, Cedric.”  
  
“No problem, Harry,” Cedric said, also smiling. “I just want all of us to survive while also winning, and working together makes that happen easier.”  
  
“Same here, Cedric, same here,” Harry said.

…

“Did he ask?” Harry said as Tracey sat down next to him in Charms as Theo sat down next to Blaise.  
  
“Worked perfectly,” Tracey replied with a smile that Harry shared.  
  
“ _Finally_ ,” he sighed. “What did he say when he found out?”  
  
“That he’d kill you except you only did it to help us both,” she said, and Harry smirked slightly. “Harry, I owe you for this one.”  
  
“No way,” Harry said, waving his hand as if waving it off. “You never owe me, Trace. Without all of you, I wouldn’t feel like I have a family to replace my parents; you especially.”  
  
Tracey didn’t say anything, but she hugged him tightly, and he wrapped his arms around her until class began, and they paid attention to Flitwick’s lesson.

…

“That Cloak is really useful,” Cedric said as Harry pulled it off once they were in the Prefects’ bathroom.  
  
“It is,” Harry agreed absentmindedly as he stared around, taking in his surroundings.  
  
It was softly lit by a splendid candle-filled chandelier, and everything was made of white marble, including what looked like an empty, rectangular swimming pool sunk into the middle of the floor. About a hundred golden taps stood all around the pool’s edges, each with a differently colored jewel set into its handle. There was also a diving board. Long white linen curtains hung at the windows; a large pile of fluffy white towels sat in a corner, and there was a single golden-framed painting on the wall. It featured a blonde mermaid who was waving at the two of them, smiling flirtatiously.  
  
Harry whistled. “Wow, this is amazing. It could make being a Prefect worth it.”  
  
“It is pretty cool, isn’t it?” Cedric agreed with a smile as he began turning taps. “Well, you’ll see next year who’s the Slytherin Prefect.”  
  
“Yeah, I know,” Harry said as he grabbed a towel and placed it alongside the bath with his Cloak, wand, egg, and robe.  
  
“Well, come on, we’d best get into the bath,” Cedric said, pulling off his clothes, placing them alongside his towel and egg, and getting in. Harry copied him.  
  
“Let’s just open the eggs under the water and listen to them,” Harry said, pulling his into the water and opening it. Neither boy could hear a sound, so they both ducked under, listening to Harry’s egg first before checking Cedric’s to be sure the clue was the same in all of the eggs.  
  
A chorus of eerie voices sung from the open egg:  
  
“ _Come seek us where our voices sound,  
We cannot sing above the ground,  
And while you’re searching, ponder this:  
We’ve taken what you’ll sorely miss,  
An hour long you’ll have to look,  
And recover what we took,  
But past an hour — the prospect’s black,  
Too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back._ ”  
  
Both boys listened a couple more times before closing the egg, pulling it out of the water, and checking Cedric’s, which sang the same thing. Finally, they leaned against the sides of the bath, breathing heavily to catch their breath again while thinking the song over.  
  
“What could it mean?” Cedric asked. “Who’s singing the song, and where will we have to go? What will be taken?”  
  
“Merpeople in the Lake ,” Harry said immediately, and Cedric looked at him oddly. “I already guessed that part with some help from an… odd source, which is why I suggested listening underwater.” Cedric nodded in understanding, and Harry was relieved that he didn’t ask for the source.  
  
“So, we have an hour to go into the Lake and find whatever the merpeople took from us,” Cedric mused. “That means finding a way to breathe underwater as well as how to get them out of there quickly, all within an hour.”  
  
“What do you think they’re going to take from us?” Harry asked. “Our brooms, or what?”  
  
“I don’t think it will be a _thing_ , but more like… a _person_ ,” Cedric said, and they shared shocked looks as they realized what Cedric had said.  
  
“You don’t think they’re going to take the person closest to us, do you?” Harry asked, his mouth wide open and eyes wide at the idea. “Dumbledore wouldn’t let his students be put in danger like that, would he?”  
  
“He might if he knew he could protect them or make sure they wouldn’t be hurt,” Cedric said quietly.  
  
“I’m not sure who they’d take for me as I’ve probably got two people they would have to choose from,” Harry admitted slowly.  
  
“And they’ll probably take Cho Chang for me,” Cedric said. “I asked her to the Ball,” he explained when Harry looked at him oddly, and Harry nodded in understanding.  
  
“Well, then, we’d better get working on how to survive this so that we can save them,” Harry said, hefting himself out of the pool-like bath and drying himself off. “I’ll let Fleur and Viktor know in the morning to listen to the egg underwater, okay?”  
  
“Sure thing,” Cedric said distractedly, but Harry understood, feeling a bit distracted himself. Knowing that either Ginny or Tracey was going to be in that lake in February was quite distracting.

…

“Yes, listen to it underwater, and you’ll get the clue,” Harry said to Fleur as she asked again just to be sure. “We’ll talk tomorrow afternoon in The Den, okay?”  
  
“Very well, ‘Arry,” Fleur agreed.

…

“Harry and I think it means they’re going to be taking hostages that we have to rescue,” Cedric told Viktor and Fleur as the four Champions sat in a corner of The Den the next afternoon after Harry had finished training. Cedric had cast a privacy charm around them so that no one else could hear what they were saying.  
  
“’Oo would they take?” Fleur asked, looking quite worried.  
  
“Possibly a boyfriend or girlfriend, a best friend, or maybe even a sibling if your siblings are here,” Harry said, a bit more dark than normal since figuring out the clue.  
  
“My seester, zen?” Fleur gasped, and Harry looked at her curiously, so she elaborated. “She ees coming to ze Task. Madame Maxime asked for ‘er to come for eet.”  
  
“Most likely, then,” Harry sighed, and Fleur looked upset.  
  
“Vell, I do not haff anyone here for me,” Viktor said, and Harry looked at him carefully.  
  
“Hermione,” he finally said, and Viktor then looked surprised before worried.  
  
“She told you, then?” he asked, and Harry nodded. “Very vell, most likely she is mine.”  
  
“How about we just calm down and think about how they haven’t been taken yet. The Task is still about two months away, and we know Dumbledore, Karkaroff, and Maxime won’t let anyone get hurt. Just think about that and nothing else until the task, okay?” Cedric said.  
  
Once he said that, all the Champions relaxed a bit and nodded. Harry knew just from looking at the others that they were all just as worried as he was, but they had to concentrate on other things besides their friends or family being put in the lake for the task.  
  
“Just… don’t tell the people what you think they’re going to take, okay?” Harry sighed, and the others look at them curiously. “The night before the task, before they take them to put them in the lake, tell them that you know what you’re doing and whatever is put in that lake will be safe, no matter what it is. When they’re told what Dumbledore is going to be doing to them, they’ll realize we knew and have been preparing the whole time to rescue them.”  
  
The others nodded in agreement at that idea, and they all turned their talk away from the Tournament as they took down the privacy charm and allowed their friends to join them again.


	20. Chapter Twenty

“Harry, you told us yourself that you need a date to the Ball,” Daphne sighed, and Harry was trying not to laugh as he shook his head, facing the ground to hide the smile on his face.

“I have a date already,” he said once he got the urge to laugh down and looked up at his friends with a straight face.

“Who?” Theo asked, looking surprised while Tracey just looked amused.

“I’m not telling,” Harry stated, and when they turned to Tracey, he added, “and neither is Tracey.”

“Damn,” Blaise muttered, and Daphne hit him upside the head for the curse while looking disappointed.

“Did you all seriously think Harry wouldn’t get a date until just five days before the Ball?” Tracey asked, her tone amused as she looked at Blaise, Theo, Daphne, and Draco, who were all looking anywhere but at the almost-twins.

“We should take that as a yes,” Harry said, also highly amused as he looked at his friend.

“They’re being purposefully annoying again,” Blaise muttered.

“Did you just figure that out?” Draco asked sarcastically as Harry and Tracey laughed.

…

“Do you think he asked Ginny?” Hermione asked Theo after the Slytherins had told the others about what had occurred.

“Possibly, but neither of them has said anything, and Tracey won’t tell,” he sighed. “Not even when I asked nicely would she tell.”

“Of course she didn’t,” Susan said, looking affronted. “Those two are so close that they wouldn’t tell anyone anything if the other asked as long as it wasn’t life-threatening, which this certainly isn’t.”

“Plus, isn’t keeping secrets part of being a Slytherin?” Neville asked quietly, and all four Slytherins scowled, which the others took as a yes.

“The only reason they even told us that Harry has a date was so that we’d leave him alone,” Daphne stated, but Draco was shaking his head.

“They also did it because they knew it would annoy us as we have no idea who it is, and they’re not telling,” Draco added. “Remember, we’ve been annoying Harry for a while now; this is just his chance of getting revenge.”

“Oh joy,” most of the others who hadn’t figured that out groaned, all of them knowing how Harry could be when it came to revenge.

“Should we try Ginny?” Hannah asked softly, and most of the group nodded.

“Let’s figure out where they are,” Hermione sighed as she pulled out her Journal to check the Map. “She’s with Harry in The Den.”

“We’ll never get them apart tonight, then,” Susan said, and the others nodded in agreement.

“Tomorrow, then,” Daphne said, and everyone nodded again.

…

“Has Harry mentioned who he’s going to the Ball with?” Hannah asked as she sat down with Ginny in the Hufflepuff Common Room. The boys were hanging out in the Ravenclaw Common Room, trying to get homework done, so the girls were hanging out together.

“He chose well,” was all Ginny said as she flipped the page of a novel, not even looking up.

“You know who he’s going with?” Hermione demanded, and Ginny nodded, sighing internally as she realized she wouldn’t be allowed to read for a while. Placing the book down, Ginny looked up at the girls all looking at her expectantly.

“You can’t all be expecting me to just _tell_ ,” Ginny said in disbelief. All of the girls’ faces got disappointed looks on them when she said that. “Oh Merlin, you were!” She burst out laughing.

“Come on, Ginny, no one knows him better than you except maybe Tracey, and we know she won’t tell,” Hermione complained, but Ginny just laughed and shook her head at the idea.

“She’s not going to tell,” Daphne sighed, recognizing the signs as she pulled some of her homework towards her on the table she was sitting at.

“I still can’t believe you ever thought I actually would,” Ginny gasped as she tried to stop laughing. “Just wait until the Ball. I think you’ll approve of who he’s going with.”

“You’re not going to the Ball, are you?” Susan asked, and Ginny shrugged.

“No one’s asked since we were told about the Ball,” she said. Ginny wasn’t lying either, seeing as Harry had asked her _before_ the school had told them about the Yule Ball; the others just didn’t need to know that.

Most of the girls muttered under their breath, but Ginny didn’t even try to guess what they were saying as she picked up her novel and began reading again.

…

“They asked you as well?” Harry asked Ginny in amusement as she finished telling him and Tracey about what had happened earlier that morning as they walked around the castle.

“They’re going to flip when they see me with you, seeing as I just shrugged and told them the truth when they asked if I was going to the Ball,” Ginny said with a smirk the other two shared. “I mean, you asked me _before_ we were told about the Ball, and I never shook my head or nodded, so I never confirmed anything, just let them assume.”

“I’m repeating what I said in the compartment on the train the first time I ever met you,” Harry sighed as he put an arm around each girl’s shoulders. “You could have been a great Slytherin. Even if I said that as a joke back then, I’m serious about it this time,” he added as he felt Ginny move, correctly guessing that she was about to speak up.

“You act like a Slytherin in how sly and cunning you are, Ginny,” Tracey said as she saw Ginny about to comment again, an annoyed look on her face. “Don’t blame us if we’re seeing that and appreciating it. Besides, everyone knows you’re a good Gryffindor as well, so don’t worry about it.”

“Fine,” Ginny sighed, finally allowed to say something by the two Slytherins but had nothing more to say after what they had said.

“Since that’s out of the way, we’ve got some planning to do,” Harry said after a moment, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he smirked at the two girls.

“I’m afraid to ask,” Ginny whispered to Tracey as both girls leaned around in front of Harry, who still had his arms around them and was chuckling.

“What’s a better way to make the first through third years feel better about not being able to go to the Yule Ball than by having a school-wide snowball fight Christmas morning in the Quidditch Pitch?” Harry asked, and both girls began to smile as they realized what he was saying.

“Traps?” Tracey asked.

“Traps,” Harry agreed with a nod.

“Come on, then, we’ve got traps to plan,” Ginny exclaimed as she began to pull on Harry’s arm towards the Room of Requirement, which was where they planned so that no one could listen in.

…

“Hey, Harry, mate,” Fred said as he and George each slung an arm around him as they walked towards the Great Hall for dinner.

“Yes?” Harry asked.

“Why hasn’t that prank war happened yet?” George asked, sounding disappointed.

“I thought we should be kind and wait until after the Yule Ball,” Harry admitted. “Besides, we can make them a bit longer lasting if we do it after the Ball, seeing as no one will be trying to kill us for their looks the day before the Ball.”

“Ah, trying to save our skins,” the twins said together, nodding in appreciation.

“Thank you for that, dear Harry,” Fred began.

“We can accept that, seeing as the girls will be bad enough on Christmas without being pranked,” George finished.

Both boys clapped Harry on the back before heading into the Great Hall, leaving an amused Harry to shake his head before following them .

…

Harry woke up Christmas morning to Tracey pulling open his curtains. She’d already opened Theo’s while Daphne got Blaise and Draco up. Both girls had presents in two piles on the floor of the dorm, and Crabbe and Goyle were watching with amusement as they took the boys’ presents and made a circle in the middle of the room with them. Of course, their amusement left when the girls did the same with their gifts.

“Should have known we’d be seeing you this morning,” Harry said with amusement as he got out of bed, put on his dragonhide cloak for warmth in the cold dungeons, and sat down on the floor by his pile of gifts.

“Of course,” Tracey replied with an amused smile as she sat down next to him and gestured for Theo to sit next to her before beginning to open her gifts. The other boys joined them.

Harry was amused by the pranking supplies he got from the twins and a few of the younger students, while a lot of his other friends had gotten him sweets. He himself had purchased some sort of candy for each year of each House that had a Journal.

Hermione, Susan, Justin, Neville, Padma, Maya, Natalie, Graham, and Terry had gifted him with advanced books, most far beyond anything he owned, which was useful since he had been using the library to find more advanced books to prepare for the Tournament. Of course, thinking of the Tournament reminded Harry that he had yet to tell anyone of what the egg said as he was waiting until after the Ball.

Astoria had given Harry some new gloves for the winter, which Harry found amusing seeing as he was planning on a snowball fight. Luckily, they fit over the invisible dragonhide gloves so that even _he_ forgot about them most of the time as they didn’t even feel like he was wearing them.

Ginny and Tracey had gone together to get him a set of special sheathes for his throwing knives that only had to be placed somewhere on his body and they stuck before going invisible, meaning he could reach them from anywhere.

Daphne, Blaise, Theo, and Draco had gotten Harry a drawing of him fighting the Horntail, and he knew they had used memories and a professional artist by how well it was done and how much of the Task the drawing showed.

Sirius and Moony had sent him a major surprise: A picture of them in front of a mansion along with a note stating that this was their new home and he would see it that summer when the renovation was done. Harry was curious as to why he hadn’t gotten the sword Sirius had commissioned, but he’d probably find out over the summer.

The Davises had sent Harry a set of rare books about the Dark Arts, stating that learning about what the Death Eaters and Voldemort might use was better than being unprepared. While he was disgusted by the idea of reading them, he appreciated the gift and understood why they had sent them to him, though Harry also guessed the Greengrasses had had a hand in it.

After everyone had opened gifts and thanked one another, Crabbe and Goyle even joining in a bit with the laughter and conversation, the girls left so everyone could get dressed. Tracey and Harry had suggested dressing warmly, though they said nothing more when asked to elaborate.

Down in the Great Hall, once everyone was beginning to finish their meals, Harry stood up with a bit of a smirk on his face as he help up his wand and sent up red sparks to gather everyone’s attention.

“As you all know, throughout the past couple of months there have been tournaments in The Den taking place,” he began, and many people smiled as a few even cheered. “Well, when the second years were originally planning the games before going to the professors, many ideas were mentioned, and one of those ideas was a snowball fight. I thought, since we have a few hours before even the most crazy of us need to prepare for the Ball,” at this many boys smirked while a few girls looked offended, “that we could have a school-wide snowball fight in the Quidditch Pitch, and the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students could choose sides.”

Chatter broke out as he finished talking, and many were calling out, asking what the teams would be. Smirking, Harry set off sparks again to quiet down the room before speaking again. Around him, many of the younger students seemed to be guessing what he was going to say about the teams as they began to whisper to friends.

“How about those who know they’re part of my group — meaning mainly the younger students and a few older ones — are on one team while the rest are on another? That means that the younger, less experienced students have more on their side while the more experienced have less. I mean, this is going to be an anything goes war, right?”

Cheering occurred as every single person with a Journal stood up and went to the side of the Hall where the Slytherin table sat at certain times of the year. When the rest of the students realized that they were the younger group, everyone else went to the other side of the room, all eating forgotten as excitement took over them at the idea of a snowball fight.

“Potter, what are you doing?” Snape demanded, surprising Harry slightly as he hadn’t noticed the professors making their way towards him as he watched the students. He gestured for them to move away from the students so that he could be truthful.

“The younger students have things to do in The Den, but imagine being them and knowing that the older students are going to have a Ball tonight while they can’t go,” he said, and Harry saw surprise on most of the teacher’s faces, though Dumbledore looked as if he had already noted it. “Well, if we give the younger students a few hours of playing with the rest of us, they won’t feel so badly about it. Plus, they’ll have brilliant stories to tell later tonight.”

“Very well, Mr. Potter, but we professors will be there to watch over everything so that none of the students get hurt,” Dumbledore said, and Harry nodded with a grin.

“I was hoping you’d all referee, since I’ll be part of the snowball fight,” he admitted. “Well, I’d better go let them know to meet out in the Quidditch Pitch in half an hour; any snowballs made until then are allowed, but no throwing snowballs before then or they have to sit out.”

The professors nodded before Harry hurried off to let the rest of the schools know of the rule as well as the time limit. Once he was done, they all rushed to dorms to get into better clothing as both sides began talking strategy on how to attack the other.

“Luckily the spell can be used on large groups of people,” Harry said with amusement as he, Ginny, and Tracey headed outside, Daphne, Blaise, Theo, and Draco walking behind them, and Harry knew they would be listening.

“Yeah,” Ginny agreed. “Wouldn’t do for our side to have problems, now, would it?”

“What are you three talking about?” Daphne demanded from behind them, and Harry turned to walk backwards, knowing Ginny and Tracey would keep him upright in the snow, as he thought about how to answer his friends.

“We planned for the snowball fight, so we’ve got some traps we’re going to set up,” he said slowly. “They won’t work if we don’t make sure they’ll only affect the other team, now will they? We’re talking about how to be sure our team doesn’t get hit by the traps.”

“Oh,” was all she said, and they went quiet until they got to the Pitch.

Harry, Tracey, and Ginny quickly went to work, using magic to make traps invisible before setting them, though only after making all of the people present immune to them for now; there was a timer on the traps to go off in half an hour so it wasn’t all that necessary. By the time the rest of the schools began arriving, the Pitch looked completely normal, as if the three of them hadn’t been placing traps just moments before. The four Slytherins were staring at the trio in amazement as they tried not to laugh.

When the half hour mark came, every person with a Journal had had the counter placed on them, the professors were all in the teacher’s box to referee and watch, and only Viktor and Fleur were on Harry’s side while their classmates were with the other seventh years, though the Champions had told Harry that they had told their friends to do that for the fun of it.

Then, Professor Dumbledore set off green sparks above the field, and the war began.

Seventh years began making it rain snowballs while the people with colored Journals sent up shields to protect their teammates the best they could from the falling snowballs that felt like hail if they hit. First years were using basic spells to make snowballs, placing them in piles around the edge of their side of the field. Second and third years launched them at the other side while Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor also made it rain snowballs, catching on quickly. The rest of the fourth years not shielding were doing a trick Cedric had taught them quickly: Sending snowballs under the ground to shoot up under the other team.

By the time the traps went off, everyone was covered in snow.

Suddenly, huge piles of snow began flinging themselves from the ground at the other team, making Harry, Ginny, and Tracey laugh as they saw the older students moving around in confusion, only setting off the traps over and over again without knowing it, making the barrage of snow that even came from outside the Pitch continue.

Finally, some of the fifth years discovered that going on the bleachers stopped some of the random snow flurries from hitting their team. Pretty soon, the whole other team was up in the stands, but they didn’t realize that Harry, Tracey, and Ginny had planned for that, knowing it would be the only place they could go.

Just as the older students were feeling safe, invisible snowballs that the three of them and their friends had been making over the course of the fight and placing in areas specified by the trio began shooting at the people on the bleachers.

As this all happened, the second and third years were aiming more snowballs into the fray. It was quite amusing to watch, in Harry’s opinion, because it was mainly a chance to watch the younger students annihilate the older ones.

By the time the traps had all worn off so that it was only the second and third years throwing snow at the older ones, the older students were all completely covered in the soft whiteness. In fact, it was almost impossible to see anything other than the snow on the people until they began using magic to clean some of it off.

“Well done!” Harry called out to the group as he and his friends began joining in on the snowball making and launching.

“Nice traps!” the twins called back from where they were working together to pull their own sort of trap, though Harry wasn’t sure he wanted to know what it was.

Unfortunately, that was about the time they set it off, and suddenly, snow flew from outside the pitch to make a giant hand above the field. The hand picked up giant snowballs from the pile right next to it, also floating in the air, and started launching them down at the other team.

As the others fought off the piles of snow being thrown down, the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students suddenly set off a series of spells that not a single Hogwarts student recognized.

Harry fell to the ground as the snow became different shapes of weapons like spears, swords, guns, bows and arrows, and more before shooting across the field to begin attacking his side. No one got hurt if one of the weapons hit, but each hit meant a bunch of snow appeared on the person, covering Harry’s side in snow quite quickly.

Suddenly, a snow sword appeared right next to Harry, and he looked up to see Fleur grinning at him before she moved on, waving her wand as she and Viktor made swords for their side of the fight.

Grasping the sword, which didn’t feel cold and didn’t melt in his grip, Harry stood and used it to block attacks from the weapons attacking him. Out of all the students on his side with swords, only a few Purebloods could use the swords given to them well outside of his close group of friends.

Harry looked up when he heard a scream from the other team, and he actually froze as he saw them with swords and snowballs and wands while charging at him and his large group of friends. After a moment, Harry grinned like crazy.

“Defense!” he called out, and all of his friends with colored Journals looked up quickly to see what he meant before they also began to grin. With wands in their right hands and snow swords in their left, Harry and his colored Journal friends went up to the front of the group to meet the other team.

“Guys, throw snowballs at them!” Ginny called behind her at the other people in their group as the weapons from before turned back into regular snow and fell to the ground with a spell from Viktor and Fleur.

As Harry met one of the Slytherin seventh years head on, he saw snow being launched from behind him into the group in front of him.

Snow sword hit snow sword as they began fighting. Harry was the better fighter, probably because he had been using swords for two years, but it could have also been because he was using his wand to throw snow up into the eyes of the Slytherin. Finally, he disarmed the seventh year and covered him in snow before moving on.

Slowly, Harry and his friends, with some help from the others, disarmed the older students of their swords before letting their own swords drop. With a smile, Harry launched snow with his wand at the range of students in front of him.

At one point in time, all four Champions were back-to-back as they defended themselves from the other team before Harry stood next to Draco, launching snow at some of Cedric’s friends, moving on quickly.

This went on for a long time. In fact, Harry had lost track of time, so it came as a surprise when Dumbledore launched red sparks into the air and used a _Sonorus_ charm to speak.

“It is time for lunch to be served,” the Headmaster called out over the field as the fight died down so that students could look at the professors, who were all still watching them. “Please make your way back to the castle, where you can either go to your dormitories to change or have a professor or older student clean you of snow and warm you up.

“This was a wonderful snowball fight with amazing uses of magic. It was also a great way to have fun with all of the students. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves. Perhaps we could set something like this up again sometime later this week. Now, please, head inside and get warm.”

Harry blinked and shared looks with Tracey and Ginny, who had ended up near him in the end. It seemed he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t noticed the sun moving up the sky to reach its zenith while they had been having their snow fight.

“That went by quickly,” he commented quietly as, all around them, students began complaining about both how fast the time had flown and how cold it was.

“It did,” Tracey agreed.

“At least we can say one thing,” Ginny said, and Harry and Tracey gave her identical looks of a left eyebrow raised in question. “This was a complete success,” she laughed with a smile.

“Very true,” Harry agreed with a small laugh as he smiled as well, slinging an arm around both girls.

“Now we just have to survive the Yule Ball,” Tracey commented quietly.

Harry had to hold in a groan at the thought.


	21. Chapter Twenty-One

“Are you worried?” Tracey asked as she sat next to Harry on his bed in the boys’ dormitory. The curtains were drawn and they had a privacy charm up around his bed.

Harry looked at her, and she nodded. He had used his “What do you think?” look. That was all that was needed for her to know that he was, indeed, worried about the Ball.  
  
“What are you worried about?” she asked, but Harry only shook his head, not wanting to talk. “Is it your dancing?” Harry shrugged, but Tracey understood.  
  
“Harry, you’re a good dancer,” she sighed. “You worked with Mum, Dad, and me for hours on it during the summers, and you know you haven’t forgotten anything.”  
  
“Of course I haven’t,” he muttered loud enough for her to hear. “You’ve dragged me off to practice every other day since you found out I had asked Ginny to the Ball to be sure I remembered.”  
  
“That’s not what you’re really worried about, is it?” Tracey asked, and Harry tried not to groan at her perceptiveness, even if he had expected it. “Harry, she is going to love it. It won’t matter to her that you’re Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived and a Hogwarts Champion; it never has. Plus, she’s used to getting attention here, and you know it.”  
  
“I know,” Harry sighed. “It’s just… Why did she even say yes, Trace? There are so many other guys who are probably better than me. She didn’t have to say yes just because I’m her friend or last year.” Harry knew the last comment didn’t make sense to Tracey, but she also wouldn’t ask right now, and she might not even ask in the future either.  
  
“Harry, who saved her from the Chamber of Secrets at the end of her first year? Who helped her get over the Chamber and the fact that she was a Parselmouth from it? Who is probably her best friend in this whole school? Who is always there for her no matter what? Who pranks with her? Who helps her with training?”  
  
Harry was shaking his head by then, unwilling to accept what she was saying, but Tracey knew what he was doing and grabbed his face with her hands, making him look her in the eye.  
  
“Harry, she said yes because there’s no one else she would rather go with than you,” she stated so matter-of-factly that Harry actually believed her. “No matter how much you think you don’t earn her, you have to realize that she thinks the same about _you_. You both earn each other, so go to the Ball and enjoy the night with your redhead.”  
  
Harry sighed but nodded, realizing Tracey was right as he closed his eyes. Without even looking, he knew Tracey was smiling in relief, pride, happiness, and smugness. It was just a Tracey thing to do when she succeeded in making him stop acting stupid.  
  
“Now, Harry, how do you think the others will react?” Tracey asked, and Harry looked at her to see the smirk on her face and a mischievous look in her eyes as she looked at him. Before he could react, Tracey nodded at the curtain, and Harry knew that she was telling him that one of the boys had taken off the charm so that they could hear the pair.  
  
“Well, after they’re done being frozen in shock, they’ll deny that they’re eyes are seeing the correct person. Once they’ve done that, they’ll probably walk right up to us and either yell, hit me, tell you off, hug us, or just stare in disbelief still,” Harry stated dryly as he and Tracey smirked.  
  
Before Tracey could realize what Harry was doing, he signed onto the colored Journal group invisibly, surprising her for sure. Looking at the conversation, he just knew that one of the boys had a pencil on his Journal so that they could all hear what Harry and Tracey were saying. Tracey quickly caught on with a smirk as they continued to talk.  
  
“You forgot to mention telling your date off for not telling anyone,” Tracey added, also speaking dryly.  
  
“Oh, right!” Harry said, hitting himself on the head. “How could I have forgotten that one?”  
  
“Because you’re stupid at times?” Tracey suggested.  
  
“Oh, shut up,” Harry groaned, and Tracey laughed as she pointed her wand at the curtains, muttering the privacy charm under her breath. Once it was up, Harry added a few extra charms before turning off his Journal.  
  
“How did they not know you were on?” Tracey demanded, and Harry just shrugged as he placed the emerald Journal in his robe. “Fine, but you’re telling me later.”  
  
“Fine,” Harry sighed. “Anyway, you’d better go talk with Theo while I finish getting ready so that I can walk with you all to the Great Hall. She’s got my Cloak and will meet us there under it, waiting until everyone is in the Hall before she shows herself.”  
  
“Brilliant,” Tracey said with a grin before un-doing the charms and slipping out of the curtained area.  
  
Harry shook his head at her speed before getting up to prepare for the Ball.

…

Harry stood in the Entrance Hall by his Slytherin friends. Blaise and Daphne were snickering as Draco turned to make disgusted faces at the group before looking at Pansy again, pretending to be enjoying himself. Theo was standing quietly, smirking at Draco’s discomfort, while Tracey was next to Harry, a hand on his arm to try to keep him calm.  
  
They both knew their friends were watching them out of the corner of their eyes, trying to see if either one of them reacted to someone coming into the Entrance Hall. It was their way of figuring out whom Harry’s date was, but none of them knew that Ginny would be entering invisibly anyway, so they wouldn’t see the reaction.  
  
“She’ll be here after we all go inside, right?” Tracey asked in an almost silent whisper, just to confirm because Harry knew she remembered what he had said earlier.  
  
“Wouldn’t surprise me if she’s standing right behind us right now,” he whispered back just as quietly, and a slight intake of breath from behind the pair told Harry that his guess was right.  
  
“I see you’re correct about that,” Tracey giggled quietly, earning odd looks from the others, but they didn’t think it was the reaction they were waiting for, so none of the others bothered them.  
  
“ _So, Gin, are you ready to shock all of our friends so badly that they won’t be able to talk_?” Harry hissed, and he got a snake’s version of a laugh in reply.  
  
“ _Of course_ ,” she hissed, but neither said anything more as they didn’t want to give anything away.  
  
Finally, Professor McGonagall walked over and asked Harry to join the other Champions so that everyone else could enter the Great Hall before them.  
  
“Sure, Professor,” he said as he gave Tracey a one-armed hug around the waist before walking over to where the other Champions as their dates were standing.  
  
“Do you not have a date, Mr. Potter?” McGonagall asked from behind him as they walked over.  
  
“I do have one, Professor,” he said, “but we’ve been keeping our friends guessing, so she’s hiding until they all enter the Hall. It’s going to shock all of my friends.” Harry was smiling mischievously, and he could tell that McGonagall understood as she said nothing more.  
  
“Hi Harry!” Hermione said as he reached the group, her arm in Viktor’s, a smile on her face.  
  
“Hey Hermione, Viktor, Cedric, Fleur, Roger, Cho,” Harry replied, nodding to each in turn, leaving Roger Davies and Cho Chang for last as he really only knew them by face and name from Quidditch.  
  
“Where’s your date, Harry?” Cedric asked with an amused look. Harry gathered that he knew about how his large group of friends wanted to know who his date was badly.  
  
“She’s somewhere nearby,” Harry replied with a careless wave of his hand upward. “We decided that she’d hang out nearby, but wouldn’t show herself until after everyone has gone into the Hall. It means only Hermione here can know who I’m going with before we enter.”  
  
“Smart,” Viktor commented, and Harry nodded with a smirk, trying not to laugh at Hermione’s face as she looked quite upset while also amused by his statement.  
  
“Eet looks like you will ‘ave a chance to see ‘er soon, ‘Arry,” Fleur commented, and Harry turned around to see that the Hall was almost empty, only a few of Harry’s friends still in the room, probably to see if his date was there yet.  
  
“I’ll be right back,” Harry said quickly, slipping into a hallway right by where they were all standing.  
  
Moments after he disappeared from view of everyone else, Ginny appeared out of nowhere, the Cloak in her hands. Grinning, Harry took the Cloak from her and slipped it into the little pouch he was wearing on his belt beneath the emerald green dress robes. In fact, Harry had Ginny’s wand on his belt as well, just in case, seeing as the redhead didn’t want to have to hide it somewhere in the light blue dress she was wearing because it would be visible.  
  
“You look beautiful,” Harry said softly as he looked Ginny over, awed by how the blue fit perfectly with the red of her hair. He wasn’t sure, but Harry had a feeling Tracey had gotten Ginny the dress as an early Christmas gift the last Hogsmeade trip.  
  
“Thanks,” Ginny said with a bit of a blush as she took the hand Harry had just offered to her.  
  
Smiling gently at his friend, Harry led them to the end of the hallway and checked to be sure that no one was out there before leading her over to the Champions. When they saw Harry’s date, the other three Champions smiled, Cho and Roger nodded at her, and Hermione’s jaw literally dropped in disbelief.  
  
Harry and Ginny laughed in pure amusement at the look on her face as Hermione stared at the pair. Of course, before any of the three could comment, Professor McGonagall came over. She looked over the pair once with a slight smile before turning to the group.  
  
Professor McGonagall told the champions and their partners to get in line in pairs and to follow her. They did so, and everyone in the Great Hall applauded as they entered and started walking up toward a large round table at the top of the Hall, where the judges were sitting. The walls of the Hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The normal tables had vanished; instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern-lit ones, each seating about a dozen people.  
  
Of course, Harry’s friends were only clapping mechanically as they stared at Harry and Ginny. Both of whom were smirking as they tried not to laugh. Tracey’s expression was one of amusement as she tried not to laugh.  
  
Dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table, but Karkaroff wore an expression of extreme dislike as he watched Krum and Hermione draw nearer. Ludo Bagman, tonight in robes of bright purple with large yellow stars, was clapping as enthusiastically as any of the students; and Madame Maxime, who had changed her usual uniform of black satin for a flowing gown of lavender silk, was applauding them politely. But Mr. Crouch, Harry suddenly realized, was not there. The fifth seat at the table was occupied by Percy Weasley.  
  
When they got to the table, Ginny purposefully took the seat the furthest away from her oldest brother, who glared at her slightly but didn’t comment as Roger Davies sat next to him after helping Fleur sit down. Hermione and Viktor sat next to Harry, Hermione with a look that said he and Ginny were about to be interrogated viciously. Cedric and Cho took up the last seats between Fleur and Viktor.  
  
There was no food as yet on the glittering golden plates, but small menus were lying in front of each of them. Harry picked his up uncertainly and looked around - there were no waiters. Dumbledore, however, looked carefully down at his own menu, then said very clearly to his plate, "Pork chops!"  
  
And pork chops appeared.  
  
Getting the idea, the rest of the table placed their orders with their plates too.  
  
Once everyone was served, Hermione turned to Harry immediately, Viktor watching her with an amused look, obviously understanding that this was something that had to happen whether he tried to stop it or not.  
  
“You’re his date, Ginny?” she demanded, disbelief coloring her voice as Ginny nodded in amusement. “But we’ve asked you over and over if he had asked you, and you said no! Were you lying to us?”  
  
“I never lied,” Ginny said with a laugh in her voice. “I claimed no one had asked me since we were told about the Ball, and I wasn’t.” Hermione was obviously about to point out that Harry must have asked her to the Ball, but Ginny stopped her before she could. “I know that Harry asked me, but he asked me _before_ the Ball was announced. We’ve known about it since the summer because of Sirius.”  
  
“You asked her _before_ it was announced?” Hermione asked Harry as she turned to him, and he nodded with a grin.  
  
“Once Draco let out about the Tournament, Sirius gave in and explained it,” he told her. “Of course, once he had explained the Tasks and Champions, the first thing he turned to was this ball, probably so that he could tease me about it, which he did starting in the summer.”  
  
“When did you ask Ginny, then?” Hermione asked, and Harry and Ginny shared looks, trying to decide who would tell her something that would stump her. Finally, Harry won the silent fight.  
  
“He asked me in August, Hermione, before school even started,” Ginny told their friend, and Hermione’s mouth fell open just as it had out in the Entrance Hall.  
  
Viktor chuckled in amusement while pulling Hermione’s attention away from Harry and Ginny as she tried to digest the idea. Harry turned to look at their friends while eating some of his roast beef.  
  
Two tables were taken up by those with colored Journals and their dates, most of who were actually from the group.  
  
Harry could see that those looking up at the head table were confused as to what had shocked Hermione so much while still also in disbelief about Ginny being his date. Of course, Tracey was laughing quietly, obviously figuring out what could have shocked Hermione. Though, looking more carefully, Harry also saw that Tracey was a bit annoyed, probably at all the questions the others were asking her.  
  
Shaking his head in amusement, Harry returned to eating his dinner, chatting with the others from time to time. Viktor was telling the group about Durmstrang, though it was obvious his headmaster didn’t like it as he told Viktor off for giving away their secrets. Fleur then talked about Beauxbatons happily. Quidditch was brought up, during which Fleur and Hermione conversed in French, surprising Harry as he hadn’t known Hermione could even speak French.  
  
Finally, the meal was over, and it was time to dance.  
  
Harry stood and offered his arm to Ginny, who smiled and lightly placed her hand on it. He and the other Champions walked out onto the dance floor.  
  
“ _I hope you know how to dance_ ,” Ginny whispered softly in Parseltongue as they walked there.  
  
“ _Why do you think Tracey kept dragging me off ever since she found out who my date was_?” Harry replied in amusement, and Ginny looked a bit surprised. “ _She was reviewing with me to make sure I remembered the dances she and her parents, mostly her mother, taught me while I was still living with them_.”  
  
Ginny said nothing as they reached the floor, and Harry placed a hand on her hip and held Ginny’s in the other. Once the Weird Sisters, a Wizard band, began a slow tune, Harry smiled slightly and began leading Ginny around the floor, looking at her face instead of at the rest of the school.  
  
When the song ended and applause filled the Hall, Harry was surprised to see that others had come out onto the dance floor during the dance. He had been looking into Ginny’s chocolate brown eyes that held her emotions in them, a bit entranced. Luckily, it looked as if Ginny was just as surprised as he was.  
  
They stayed on the dance floor for a few more dances, even if they were faster, staying as far away from Fred and Angelina as they could for fear of injury, seeing as they were moving so fast and wildly that it was a reasonable thought.  
  
“Angelina and George are going through one of those times where they’re just awkward again,” Ginny said in Harry’s ear during a slightly slower song when he asked about why Fred was there with Angelina instead of George. Harry understood immediately as the pair had done that more than once in the past couple of years, which would be why Angelina wouldn’t mind going with Fred as much.  
  
Finally, though, Harry and Ginny left the dance floor to go get a Butterbeer, and that was when their friends mobbed them, as if they had been waiting for them. Truthfully, they probably had been, Harry thought as Tracey got between the others and Ginny, her arms up.  
  
“Let them get drinks, and then we can go outside or something so that we don’t make a scene,” she stated. The others nodded after looking around and seeing the looks they had already been receiving when the conversation had barely started.  
  
Thanking Tracey silently, Harry grabbed a couple Butterbeers each for him and Ginny, knowing this was going to be a long, tough conversation that would involve lots of talking, so an extra drink would be needed.  
  
The front doors stood open, and the fluttering fairy lights in the rose garden winked and twinkled as they went down the front steps, where they found themselves surrounded by bushes; winding, ornamental paths; and large stone statues. Harry could hear splashing water, which sounded like a fountain. Here and there, people were sitting on carved benches.  
  
Tracey led the group down one of the paths until they came across a small courtyard no one else was in. There were plenty of benches they could all sit on. Of course, Harry and Ginny sat down with Tracey while everyone else surrounded the amused trio, Hermione the only one not looking quite so confused.  
  
“Ginny is your date,” Daphne stated, and Harry nodded with a grin.  
  
“How long has she been your date?” Padma asked, and Harry appreciated that she had figured out the logic behind their replies now knowing who his date was.  
  
“Since before anyone told us about the Ball here at school,” he replied, and Padma and Terry nodded in understanding. Of course, Harry could see that Theo, Blaise, and Daphne had figured out why he had said it like that, but it didn’t mean they weren’t annoyed.  
  
“When did you ask her?” Susan asked softly, and Ginny smiled a bit.  
  
“August,” she said, and everyone turned to stare at Harry, who just sat there with a raise eyebrow and a smirk.  
  
“Yes?” he drawled, snapping the others out of their shock somewhat.  
  
“Why didn’t you tell?” Hermione finally demanded, the least shocked of the group.  
  
“Because it’s been amusing to watch your reactions,” Tracey said with a laugh, reminding the others that she had known for a while. “Before you ask, I only found out like two weeks ago, so don’t go blaming me. They kept it from _everyone_ , which includes me. It took me forever to figure it out.”  
  
“Three Galleons richer,” Harry murmured smugly with a proud smile.  
  
“Shut up,” Ginny snarled playfully as she hit him lightly upside the head, amusing the others.  
  
“That would be why you suddenly switched sides, right?” Hannah asked, and Tracey nodded.  
  
“So you kept all of this from us just because it was amusing?” Blaise asked, and all three nodded. “At least everything is normal,” he said to the others, and the whole group laughed.  
  
“Let’s go back and enjoy the Ball,” Harry said as he drained his second Butterbeer, standing up and offering a hand to Ginny, which she took. “I mean, I know that _I_ didn’t come to this thing just to get interrogated by all of you, though hanging out with everyone was a plan of mine…”

…

Harry walked back outside with Ginny an hour later after dancing with her and a few of his other female friends. His arm was around her shoulder and hers around his waist. It was very peaceful just walking around with her silently, the silence quite comfortable.  
  
“This has been a lot of fun,” Ginny finally sighed, breaking the silence.  
  
“That’s for sure,” Harry agreed as he pulled Ginny to sit down next to him on a bench not far from where he and the others had been earlier. They sat in silence, Harry running his fingers through her smooth, soft hair.  
  
“What does this mean for us?” Ginny finally asked, and Harry stopped his hand. Looking Ginny in the eyes, Harry knew what she wanted, and he had to admit that he wanted it as well.  
  
“Ginny, will you be my girlfriend?” he asked softly, and Ginny’s eyes shone, just as his were.  
  
“Of course,” she replied, smiling.  
  
Harry turned to face Ginny better, and she smiled up at him. Smiling himself, he leaned in to press his lips to hers for the first time when they heard a familiar voice nearby.  
  
“Really Theo?” Tracey was saying. “Did you really think I’d say anything other than yes?”  
  
“You mean it, you really mean it?” Theo asked, sounding so unlike himself that neither Harry nor Ginny could be upset right then about the ruined first kiss.  
  
“Of course I mean it,” Tracey said, and Harry knew from her tone that she was rolling her eyes in part exasperation part amusement.  
  
“ _What are they talking about_?” Ginny hissed quietly, using Parseltongue so that Theo and Tracey wouldn’t realize that someone was nearby, as it was obvious they were just around the corner from where he was sitting with Ginny.  
  
“ _I don’t know, but I have an idea,_ ” Harry said, smirking slightly. “ _How worried do you think Theo would be asking the question I just asked you if it took me asking Tracey to the Ball just to get him to ask her to it_?”  
  
“ _Oh_ ,” Ginny hissed, laughing almost silently, her shoulders shaking. “ _He can’t believe that she just agreed to be his girlfriend! That makes sense._ ”  
  
Of course, Harry covered his ears quickly when he heard Tracey and Theo’s laughter stop. As much as he wanted the two to be together and be happy, hearing one of his best friends kissing the girl he thought of as his twin was just something he _didn’t_ want. Ginny was obviously amused by his face, but Harry didn’t care as long as he didn’t have to hear the two Slytherins .

…

“Why is Harry making faces?” Tracey asked Ginny as they watched him dance with Daphne on the dance floor not much later.  
  
“They’re probably talking about you and Theo,” Ginny replied with a laugh, surprising Tracey. “I guess you and Theo forgot that Harry and I had left the Hall just before you did.” Ginny laughed even more at the look on Tracey’s face.  
  
“I did,” Tracey admitted, blushing a bit as she realized what Ginny might be talking about.  
  
“It was amusing to see his face as he covered his ears,” Ginny smirked, and Tracey knew then what her almost-twin and the final member of their trio had heard.

…

“Tracey is so embarrassed,” Ginny said as Harry walked her back to the Gryffindor Common Room after the Ball had ended with a final slow dance that they had shared.  
  
“Yeah, well, I’m a bit disgusted,” Harry replied, and Ginny laughed. “Hey! Imagine if it was one of your brothers you were hearing!” Harry protested, and that shut Ginny up again as her face grew disgusted by the idea. “That’s exactly how I feel,” he said knowledgably, and Ginny grimaced in sympathy, now understanding him a bit more.  
  
“Anyway,” Ginny said, trying to draw the conversation away from that topic, obviously, “I had a lot of fun tonight, Harry.”  
  
“So did I,” Harry admitted, stopping Ginny just a few corridors away from the Fat Lady, holding her hand and look into her brown eyes with his own, both smiling slightly. “I don’t think there is anyone I would have rather been with.”  
  
Before Ginny could reply, Harry moved towards her, his other hand going to her cheek as he lowered his face to hers. Their lips touched, and Harry felt a fire begin to burn in him as he kissed Ginny for the first time. He didn’t know how to describe the kiss beyond bloody incredible, so he didn’t even try; he just went along for the ride .


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two

“So, Harry, you never did tell us what happened with the egg,” Daphne commented in The Den a few days after Christmas.

“Well, I need to figure out a way to breathe underwater for an hour,” he commented dryly, rolling his eyes as he had been expecting this line of questioning sometime soon.  
  
“What? Why?” many of his friends asked, shocked as they sat up straighter.  
  
“ _Come seek us where our voices sound,_  
_We cannot sing above the ground,_  
_And while you’re searching, ponder this:_  
_We’ve taken what you’ll sorely miss,_  
_An hour long you’ll have to look,_  
_And recover what we took,_  
_But past an hour — the prospect’s black,_  
_Too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back_ ,”  
  
Harry repeated from memory. Around him, his friends were staring, wide-eyed.  
  
“In the lake are Merpeople, and I’ve got an hour to find what they took,” he stated. Everyone was silent as they digested this, and Harry tightened his hold around Ginny’s shoulders, where she had been resting for the past hour before this had come up. Next to him, on his other side, was Tracey, whose hand was on his arm in silent support.  
  
“Do you have any idea what they’re going to take?” Susan finally asked.  
  
“All four of us have ideas, but we really have no idea,” Harry lied, shaking his head, purposely keeping his body relaxed, but feeling as if he was nervous. He knew that one wrong move, and Ginny and Tracey would find out the truth, which he didn’t want.  
  
“Well, there’s Gillyweed,” Neville suggested, and Harry smiled in encouragement so that Neville would go on. “Professor Moody gave me a book on water plants at the beginning of the year. Gillyweed is a plant that, when you eat it, gives you gills and webbed hands and feet for a certain amount of time.”  
  
“Great!” Harry said happily. “I’ll write to Padfoot and see about getting some. Thanks so much for the idea, Neville.” Neville smiled with a bit of pride that Harry was seeing more and more often as the years went by, especially during training. “In the meantime, I’m going to be looking through the higher level books some more; maybe I’ll come across a good charm for backup or something.”  
  
“I’m sure some of us can check the library for ideas as well,” Hermione said.  
  
“A backup plan is always a good idea,” Daphne agreed. It seemed to Harry that everyone knew he would be using Neville’s idea of Gillyweed without question, but they also knew that, as a Slytherin, he wanted to be as prepared as possible for the Task.  
  
“You should also go try to find the Merpeople before the Task, but don’t go too close until then,” Ginny said suddenly, and everyone looked at her in a bit of surprise before nodding slightly in agreement.  
  
“I’ll do that to test the Gillyweed as well as gather my bearings so the Task will be easier,” Harry said while squeezing Ginny in thanks for the idea.  
  
“Now that we’re done with that, what’s the next tournament taking place this week?” Tracey asked, pointing towards the bulletin board to distract everyone from the Tournament.  
  
Harry was thankful, especially because thinking about the Second Task meant thinking about either Ginny or Tracey being under the lake with Merpeople, and he still didn’t know which of them it would be.

…

  _ **PRANK WAR!**_

_The second week of classes, Monday through Friday, is going to be a free-for-all prank war with teams forming and turning against one another if they wish._  
  
_Rules:_  
  
_1) Pranks MAY be set up beforehand, but there will be absolutely no pranking before the actual war, not even from the Weasley twins. Any pranking before the war results in prankster’(s) wand(s) being cursed. This curse allows no spells but ones necessary for classes to be used for the duration of the war._  
  
_2) Pranks cannot last beyond Sunday._  
  
_3) DO NOT tell any professor or adult about this, even after it has started! No one willing to tell a professor about the war or a professor can see this poster._  
  
_4) If you get detention for being caught out on a prank, GO! All it does is show that you need to learn some new tricks._  
  
_5) Pranks cannot take place inside a classroom or in the Common Rooms or dorms. Only in the halls , out on the grounds, and in the Great Hall. The only other place not allowed is in The Den, which will be the safe zone outside of classes and in the evening. I would suggest not pranking in the library unless you wish to face the wrath of Madame Pince, all of the professors, and many students, but it isn’t specifically off-limits._  
  
_6) Pranks cannot harm anything but pride unless it’s something like a Tripping Hex._  
  
_All in all, though, just have FUN!_  
  
…

All around the school, posters went up on the last day of break. Each Common Room and The Den had them on notice boards on tables, and even in some dorms. To those who were willing to tell the professors about the war or stop it as well as the professors, the posters looked like just a normal notice about another tournament in The Den. To everyone else in the school it was a poster of color that excited most people, but Harry’s friends especially.  
  
Many were afraid of what Harry, Ginny, Tracey, and the twins would do, but everyone knew it would be an amazing week of pranks that anyone could get in on. Even the foreigners were looking forward to it, probably so that they could show off a bit.  
  
Unfortunately for everyone, no one knew what Harry and Tracey had been doing over the past few months with Ginny’s help. If they had known, not even the twins would have joined in on the prank war for fear of the pranking trio.

…

“Brilliant poster, Harry, just brilliant,” Fred said as he and George forced Tracey and Ginny away from him enough to sit on either side of him in the Great Hall.  
  
“Wonderful advertisement, mate,” George agreed with a proud smile and nod.  
  
“Thought you’d approve,” Harry said with some amusement as Tracey and Ginny pulled out their wands, silently threatening the twin pranksters out of their spots. The twins moved so fast when they saw the wands that they were a red and black blur.  
  
“Next week is going to be fun,” the twins said in sync before rushing back to their table.  
  
“They have no idea what they’re in for,” Ginny said in amusement as she picked her fork up again and began eating, Tracey and Harry shaking their heads in agreement as well as sadness.

…

The first week of classes passed by silently, or so it seemed to the teachers. For the students, much of the time outside of classes and homework was spent preparing for the prank war.  
  
Luckily for Harry, Tracey, and Ginny, they had managed to get the Room of Requirement before either of the twins, and they had found a way to keep their planning room unreachable to anyone but them.  
  
While in the room, potions were brewed, powders created, strings and threads prepared, maps marked up, and plans made. All the while, a special new pranking helper was being perfected every hour.

…

Finally, on Sunday, something happened in the Room of Requirement.  
  
“It’s done!” Tracey exclaimed, gathering the attention of Harry and Ginny, who had been brewing supplies under Harry’s instructions.  
  
“Let’s see!” Harry said, excited.  
  
Tracey laid a piece of parchment on the square table where they had been working on it for months, all three gathering around. Of course, there were two more off to the side, but they were ignoring them for now.  
  
In front of him, Harry was looking at _their_ version of the Marauder’s Map. If his father and his friends had thought _that_ was the perfect pranking tool, they were sadly mistaken, as Harry knew Padfoot and Moony would admit when Harry showed it to them over the summer.  
  
Not only did the Map show all of the passages the Marauder’s Map had shown, it showed The Den, the Chamber of Secrets — Sebae purposefully missing from the Map — a few passages the three of them alone had found over the past three-and-a-half years, and even the Room of Requirement, though it only showed the location, not who was in it.  
  
All of the passwords were on the Map, and it was even able to show them when they changed, including the Common Rooms and Headmaster’s office. Even better, they only had to tap one of those places with a wand to find out the password.  
  
Of course, while that was all good, in Harry’s mind, the final addition to the Map, and the toughest one, was the best. It was the addition that allowed the three of them to see where every single prank and trap was placed, whether by them or someone else, and a tap of the wand showed a description of the prank on the side of the map.  
  
The one problem they had had was figuring out how to detect potions and spells without showing what ones were in the classrooms. Eventually, they had decided to not show any magic or potions in off-limits areas, though they showed them in The Den and Common Rooms just to be safe. It meant there would be random flashes of spells at times in Common Rooms, dorms, and hallways, but those wouldn’t be terrible unless they were long-lasting.  
  
“Let’s get to work, then,” Harry said with a grin, turning back to the last batch of supplies so that they could pack up their pouches full of supplies for the upcoming week, knowing that it would be like a war zone full of pranks instead of actual fighting.

…

Harry pulled out his Map and slowly made his way around the school, dodging traps, putting counters on himself where he had to, and setting up his own traps for him, Ginny, and Tracey all the while. It took many hours of the day, but by the time dinner came along on Sunday, the traps were all placed and ready to set off.  
  
No one would know what was coming.

…

Harry watched as the twins walked into the Great Hall and immediately looked at him and his friends. The disappointment on their faces was evident.  
  
If they had thought a simple prank right outside the Slytherin Common Room set yesterday in the early evening would actually get him, they were sadly mistaken, Harry thought, smirking as he saw on his Map that was on his lap that the twins had both been hit with a prank set specifically in a route he knew they would take.  
  
Pretty soon, both boys were snakes, hissing as they slithered over to Harry. Luckily for them, he could understand them, even if he wasn’t going to do anything.  
  
“ _Change us back!_ ” they hissed as Harry raised an amused eyebrow at them. “ _Please! We know it was you. Plus, we can tell you can understand us_.”  
  
“Never said I couldn’t,” he replied in English so that those around him could understand. “Sorry boys, but I don’t know the counter for this as I didn’t do it. Maybe it’ll wear off with time.”  
  
That was all the twins needed to realize that it was a short-term prank. Of course, that was also the moment it wore off, leaving the twins in their underwear by Harry’s table as their clothes were over where they had been sitting. Fred’s boxers had been changed so that they were bright pink with “Princess” written on the bum while George’s were purple with pink poka-dots.  
  
Both boys rushed over to their clothes before running out of the Hall, everyone laughing at them.  
  
Meeting the girls’ eyes, Harry saw they were thinking the same thing: This was only the beginning.

…

Over the rest of Monday, people were tripping all over, changing colors, and some even turning into animals for a minute or two. They all quickly learned not to move if it was the animal one, else they’d end in only their underwear, which was magically changed each time, on after it wore off.  
  
The twins set off fireworks in abandoned classrooms, charmed to go off when someone passed by the room. They were also using some of their prank food at meals to turn people in canaries and make their tongues grow until someone stopped the growth. One of the carefully placed traps was supposed to change Harry and Tracey’s robes into Gryffindor dress robes of the opposite gender while just changing the gender of Ginny’s robes, but it was easy to cancel the trap and replace it with Slytherin in mind for another person to walk through.  
  
Tuesday was when the older students started adding in transformations and turned the random bricks of the stone walls into animals out of nowhere, scaring the younger ones until they realized the animal couldn’t move. Sometimes the portraits were pranked to follow people around, singing to the person or flying off the wall.  
  
Of course, potions were on all kinds of surfaces including tables, chairs, walls, even the floors and doorways. Some shrunk people, some made them grow, a few were swelling potions, and a bunch had their body parts changed in color or shape. A typical potion was one to make hair grow amazingly fast. Harry could only appreciate the basic potions that changed a person’s color while simultaneously doing something like growing the hair or making them shrink.  
  
The twins were slowly being driven crazy as the trio’s traps of things like suddenly being frozen in place, being unable to talk for an hour, instant hair-loss that took a full day to re-grow even with a potion, and certain body parts suddenly becoming so numb that they were unmovable. What made it worse on the duo was that not a single prank they were setting was being tripped by the trio. In fact, the only things that worked were the Tripping Hexes and other sudden spells used in the halls, not that the twins had worked that out yet.  
  
Wednesday involved lions, snakes, badgers, and eagles all over the school in the school colors, though they never did anything more than force a student to the ground before leaving the person alone and finding a new target. The trio was proud of that accomplishment.  
  
Through all of this, the professors knew who was setting off a majority of the pranks, but they couldn’t pin anything on them. Whenever the five of them were asked to turn out their pockets, not a single thing besides a wand was found, and there were always only spells used in class when the wand was checked. Of course, no one outside of those in training knew about the pouches that were hanging invisibly on their belts full of supplies.

…

Wednesday evening, Harry and Tracey were hanging out in the boys’ dorm, sitting on Harry’s bed with their special Map open in front of them and pranking supplies within grabbing distance.  
  
“What are you two up to?” Theo asked as he entered the room, and Harry quickly tapped the Map and muttered, “Prank Planned,” which was how their Map was wiped clean, purposely made differently from the Marauder’s Map.  
  
“Planning, of course,” Harry said as he rolled his eyes, placing the Marauder’s Map on top of their own Map as Tracey got up to kiss Theo, distracting him while also greeting him as they normally did. “And can you please not do that in front of me?” he begged once it was done, rolling his eyes in disgust.  
  
“Why do you always say that, Harry?” Theo complained lightly as he put an arm around Tracey, pulling her to sit down on his bed which was next to Harry’s.  
  
“Because she’s basically my sister, and it’s so not cool to see anyone kissing her,” Harry suggested, and Tracey smirked slightly. Of course, they both knew that she felt the same way about Harry and Ginny kissing, which was why Harry kissed his own girlfriend in front of Tracey whenever she kissed her boyfriend in front of him.  
  
“Get over it,” Theo groaned.  
  
“How would you feel if you had to watch Blaise and Daphne snogging?” Harry asked, and Theo shuddered before realizing what he meant. “Yeah, it’s the same thing with watching the two of you.”  
  
“Fine, fine, but what are you planning this time?” Theo asked.  
  
“Pranks, of course,” Tracey said, pulling away from Theo, much to his disappointment, to go back to Harry’s bed to write down a final note in her Journal before making a scroll of it. She copied the scroll and passed it to Harry, who read the final addition with a smirk before nodding in agreement and putting the scroll in a pouch on his bed.  
  
“I don’t want to know what that said, do I?” Theo asked rhetorically, but Harry and Tracey answered anyway.  
  
“Probably not.”  
  
“Great, just great, another huge prank,” Theo muttered with a groan as he shook his head.  
  
“Of course,” Tracey said with an innocent smile while pulling him from the room. She winked at Harry before leaving him to put the finishing touches on the prank before setting it up.

…

“Come on, come on,” Harry muttered under his breath, much to the girls’ amusement, though they were just as anxious as he was.  
  
It was the next morning at breakfast, and all three were sneaking glances at the Head Table from time to time. The prank for this morning was on the professors, including Madam Maxime and Professor Karkaroff.  
  
Of course, just as Harry finally turned back to his meal, a huge bang went off. Grinning internally, he looked back up at the Head Table with a bit of pride. Their prank used ideas from all over the prank war, using the basics that others had been using.  
  
Not a single professor could move because of a sticking charm on the table to hold their arms in place and another carefully placed on their chairs. All of them had been hit with hair-growth potion along with a color-changing charm. Even better, their silverware was now snakes, their goblets eagles, napkins badgers, and plates lions, all the same size as the object that had been changed.  
  
All around the Hall, students began to snicker at the sight of their professors covered in so much hair that the only difference between them was the color, and even then their hair kept changing from color to color. Finally, students began to laugh as the animals began nesting in the hair; it was impossible not to laugh.  
  
Within half an hour, which was enough time for the professors to eat and get to classes, the professors were back to normal, if not a bit upset by the prank. Unfortunately, not even Dumbledore, who was truly trying, could figure out who had done the charm work, or at least, they had no proof.  
  
“Which part of that prank did I interrupt last night?” Theo asked softly as they all headed to their first class, Herbology.  
  
“Deciding what charm to use for the snake,” Harry informed his friend in amusement while expertly waving his wand at a specific part of the floor in front of them and muttering a spell. Before their eyes, a hidden string appeared. Quickly, Harry sent a stone at it, and the stone suddenly had female clothes covering it.  
  
Rolling his eyes, Harry walked towards the string, stepping over it. When nothing else happened, the others copied his move, and they all went to class while the twins watched, disappointed looks on their faces.  
  
“How do they do it?” they whispered in sync as they watched Harry leave the Entrance Hall as if nothing had happened.

…

By Thursday evening, Harry knew that the Weasley twins were desperate to at least hit him with a single prank before the prank war was over. Unfortunately for them, they had no idea that Harry and the girls had a special prank planned for Friday evening that would last until Sunday, a minute until midnight. They would hate it, but everyone else would be amused by it.  
  
Of course, that still left another twenty-four hours for the boys to try to prank the trio. All three were being cautious when not in the safe zones and still alert while in them.  
  
It was lucky for the twins that someone had finally taken pity on them and told the pair about the trio’s one weakness, as it would allow them to put the three into a very weak trap, but that was it.  
  
The next afternoon, during the free period Tracey and Harry had because of Arithmancy and Ginny because she wasn’t in Divination or Muggle Studies, the twins hit all three of them with a Tripping Hex that sent them into the color-changing wire the trio knew was there as Harry had been preparing to disarm it. Of course, all three laughed aloud when they saw that Harry was purple, Ginny orange, and Tracey gray.  
  
“Nicely done, boys,” Tracey called, and Harry knew the twins were surprised that she was looking right at their hiding spot.  
  
“Took you long enough,” Ginny commented with a smirk.  
  
“You two owe me five Galleons each,” Harry said as if it was just a passing thought. “I called Friday, remember?”  
  
“Why do I keep on betting with you?” Ginny grumbled as she passed over her money.  
  
“I’m not sure why I do either,” Tracey agreed while tossing the gold over Ginny’s head and into Harry’s waiting hands one by one.  
  
“You — you were betting on us finally getting you?” George asked in disbelief as the twins moved from their hiding spot.  
  
“Well, yeah,” Harry said. “It’s been obvious all week that the only pranks that get us are the sudden ones, not the ones placed ahead of time. I’m a bit surprised I actually won the bet, seeing as I expected you to catch on to that like three days ago.”  
  
“You did?” Tracey and Ginny asked, spinning around to face him.  
  
“Yeah,” he said. “I was trying to give one of you an easy win with me for once, you know.” Both girls blinked before smiling slightly, seeing as Harry was actually telling the truth. “Anyway, we’ll see you at dinner.” Harry waved at the shocked twins before walking towards the library to do Ancient Runes homework, the girls following.

…

The final prank pulled on the twins was done at dinner; specifically, the time when the most people were eating. They wanted everyone to see their prank this time.  
  
A sudden flash of light was all that gave away the prank as people spun around to see what it was this time.  
  
Fred was completely silver, which gave away who had planned this prank, while George was emerald green. It reminded the students who had been at Hogwarts in Harry’s first year of the original pranks that allowed the twins to befriend Harry.  
  
Of course, this time there was an addition: Words floating above their heads.  
  
_Silver is No Longer a Pranking King_  
  
_Emerald is No Longer a Pranking King_  
  
Each twin had the color that belonged to them floating above their head, Fred’s in gold and George’s in scarlet.  
  
The older students were the first to laugh, remembering the nicknames that had come from that prank four years ago, and the younger years were laughing just as hard once they were filled in on the background of the prank.  
  
Of course, the fact that the twins had finally lost their title in their sixth year of Hogwarts caused a lot of talk, but those closest to the twins and Harry were telling the whole school that Harry had only been playing the Prince of Pranks — all three of them had known who was really the King.  
  
Overall, the prank war had been a huge success, in Harry opinion. People had laughed constantly, the teachers were driven crazy, everyone had been involved in the end, and Harry had finally decided to let the school know who was really the Pranking King of the school, even if he didn’t show it often. Of course, Ginny and Tracey were the Pranking Queens.  
  
As Harry looked up at the Head Table, Professor Dumbledore raised his goblet and tipped it in Harry’s direction ever-so-slightly before drinking. It was his way of congratulating him on a job well done to help the school have fun. All without letting anyone else see it.


	23. Chapter Twenty-Three

Harry watched as Ankh’s eyes appeared in random places of the Room of Requirement, always when Harry hissed, “ _Now_ ,” to the snake. Ginny was watching in amusement, but they both knew that this could be a very important spell in the future.

It would enable Sebae to see where she was going, be invisible, and only kill the people she wanted if there was ever a battle at Hogwarts. Neither wanted that to happen, but they knew that Voldemort would come back soon, so they were making sure they were prepared. Both were learning the spell, taking turns with it.  
  
“Hey, Harry,” Ginny called from where she was watching Ankh while also looking at her Journal’s Map to figure out places where a Horcrux might be hiding. The holiday spirit had driven it from their minds quite willingly, but all who knew of the dark object were searching for it once again.  
  
“Yeah?” he said, hissing at Ankh again.  
  
“Could we try asking the Room of Requirement where the Horcrux is if it’s in Hogwarts?” she asked, and Harry told Ankh to stop for a minute, turning slowly to face her.  
  
He stared at Ginny in shock for a moment. Harry had never even thought of that, but there was another thought flowing through Harry’s mind.  
  
“What if the Horcrux is hidden in the Room?” Harry whispered, but Ginny heard it. “I mean, we’ve searched every single part of the school, even all of the Common Rooms, but we’ve never tried the one room where it could be anywhere: This one.”  
  
“What sort of room should we ask for?” Ginny gasped quietly.  
  
“A room of hidden things?” Harry suggested. “I don’t know! Come on, let’s try it. _Ankh, we’re done for now. Ginny and I have something we need to do._ ” Harry countered the charm on his snake, holding his arm out for the corn snake before packing up his bag and rushing out of the Room with Ginny.  
  
_I need a room full of hidden things_ , Harry thought over and over as he paced three times in front of the wall. Before his eyes, another door appeared, and Ginny opened it.  
  
When they entered, both froze in shock as Ginny whistled in amazement.  
  
“We’re going to need help,” Harry muttered, staring at the rows upon rows of things just left in the room over the years. “And lots of time.”  
  
“Yup,” Ginny agreed with a slight nod while staring wide-eyed.  
  
“We’d better get to work,” Harry sighed, beginning the search that would take much of the school year, lots of hours, and all five people in on the secret of the Horcruxes to complete.

…

“You’ve almost got it, Harry,” Hermione encouraged one Saturday training session where the others were helping Harry master the Bubble-Head Charm they had found only the day before.  
  
Concentrating hard, Harry finally created a bubble , which looked more like a fishbowl, around his head. It made seeing very hard as his view was messed up, but he could still breathe as well as cast spells, which was somewhat useful. Unfortunately, it could be countered and possibly popped, which was why it would be the backup plan instead of the main plan. The only thing that could go wrong with Gillyweed was running out of time.  
  
“Well done, Harry,” Hermione said after he had cancelled the charm and sunk to his knees, a bit winded and tired after working so hard on the spell. It might have only been a fifth year spell, but learning a spell like that in only a couple of hours when it wasn’t taught until the end of fifth year was tough on a fourth year.  
  
“Thanks,” he said once he had his breath back. “At least the backup plan is ready, and I just got the Gillyweed this morning, so I’ll be able to go out to the lake to prepare over the next three weekends before the Task.”  
  
“They still haven’t mentioned what’s being taken?” Susan asked, and Harry shook his head, quite glad neither Ginny nor Tracey were close enough to his body to see how he had tensed ever-so-slightly.  
  
“I think the whole point of it is to figure it out either the morning of the task, at the beginning of the task before we start, or when we reach the Merpeople,” he replied, which was probably the truth as Harry knew he wouldn’t have actually guessed hostages had Cedric not brought up the idea.  
  
“Hopefully you’ll know your way to the Merpeople by then,” Tracey added.  
  
“Uh…” Harry began slowly, trying not to laugh as he pulled out his Journal and activated the Map. “I already know where they are,” he said, showing Tracey the Mischief Map, which was what the Map in the Journals had been declared by the twins, to remind her that they had put the Lake and Merpeople onto the Mischief Map. She blushed as everyone else looked a bit shocked by that.  
  
“How long have those dots been there?” Hermione demanded, pulling out her own Journal to see that the Merpeople were, indeed, on her own Journal and not just Harry’s.  
  
“Since we made them,” Ginny said in amusement. “All Harry has to do is be sure he knows where he’s swimming for the Task, so it might only take one trip to get to the Merpeople, but that’ll be useful as he’ll learn how long it will take as well as what he might meet along the way.”  
  
“True, true,” Daphne muttered while looking at Blaise’s Journal of the lake, frowning slightly at the dots that showed not only Merpeople but also other creatures in the Lake.  
  
“I’ll be fine, guys,” Harry stated, and they all looked up at him. “I can bring weapons besides my wand with me, so I’ll bring a few daggers just in case I run into anything.”  
  
Harry saw how much that one statement relieved most of the tension in his friends. It was only then he figured out how worried they were about this, and he was glad he hadn’t told them the idea of hostages being used as that would have only worried his friends more.

…

Harry swam in the murky darkness of the lake, wearing only a pair of swimming trunks. A warming charm kept him from feeling the cold of the water as he swam with his gills allowing him to breathe, his webbed hands and feet moving him along faster than he had ever swam before .  
  
Attached to his left forearm was his wand holster, and Harry was glad it was waterproof. Of course, the invisible daggers on his arms and thighs were also waterproof and gave Harry a bit of comfort seeing as he couldn’t have a sword with him without giving anything away. Only one of the daggers was visible, and it was the one that looked more like a plain dagger than anything else, though Harry knew the blade was goblin-made .  
  
He was practicing using the Gillyweed, more of which he had in his pocket. Overall, the stuff was really good except for one problem: He couldn’t speak properly. It meant there was no chance of Harry using his wand for anything except make boiling water shoot out of it; he knew as he had tried earlier.  
  
Sighing internally, Harry pushed the thought away as he swam closer to where he knew the Merpeople lived. He was swimming a lot higher up than he would be for the Task, but he had a basic idea of where the village was now, and it would take him maybe half an hour to get there, probably less now that he knew exactly where to go.  
  
While to some the exhibition might have seemed pointless, to Harry it was precious, seeing as it meant he’d have an easier time rescuing whichever girl he knew would be down there .

…

Harry didn’t do much for Valentine’s Day besides get Ginny a rose. Most of their friends were asking why he didn’t do much and why she didn’t mind, but truthfully, they had decided years before, and still agreed now, that Valentine’s Day was too silly of a holiday to make it very special. Chocolate and a rose were just fine for Ginny, so that was what she got.

…

“Worried?” Cedric asked one day about a week and a half before the Task as all four Champions gathered in a group in The Den, a Privacy Charm around them yet again.  
  
“Very,” Harry admitted, and the other two nodded.  
  
“Eet will be very ‘ard to do zis,” Fleur agreed. “My seester will be down zere, zough, and I weel, rescue ‘er.”  
  
“Herm-own-ninny vill be there,” Viktor said, and Harry knew that it meant he’d try his very best to save her.  
  
“I really do like Cho, and I just can’t let anything happen to her,” Cedric said quietly. “Any idea who you’re rescuing yet, Harry?”  
  
“Ginny or Tracey,” Harry said immediately. “That’s all I know. I’d be a mess if I lost either of them, so I have no idea which they’ll pick. Ginny might be my girlfriend, but Tracey is basically my twin.”  
  
“Ginny, I zink eet will be,” Fleur stated, and Harry blinked in surprise. “You care for zem both, but eet must be admitted zat zey weel go for Ginny.”  
  
“True,” Harry sighed, “but I’d save them both if I had to.”  
  
The others nodded in understanding, and Harry at least knew that he wasn’t alone in how he was feeling. Just one look at the others’ faces showed that he wasn’t alone in keeping what he knew of the Task away from those who would be taken. It was hard enough on everyone without knowing it, so all four were afraid to add to it.

…

The night before the Second Task had arrived, and Harry was sitting outside by the lake , staring out over the dark water as the sun set.  
  
“What are you doing out here?” a voice behind Harry asked, and he didn’t even look up as Tracey and Ginny sat down on either side of him. He had actually been waiting for them.  
  
“Looking at the lake, waiting for both of you,” he said quietly, and he knew the second part had surprised them.  
  
“Why have you been waiting for us?” Ginny asked softly, but Harry didn’t answer; he knew he didn’t have to.  
  
“Because we’re what he’ll sorely miss,” Tracey said, and Ginny gasped slightly. “One of us is going to be in that lake tomorrow, and he’s obviously known ever since he heard the clue. It’s why he’s been so determined to be ready, am I right?”  
  
“Yes to all of it,” Harry sighed, putting his face in his hands with his elbows on his knees. “It doesn’t help that I’m not even completely sure which of you will be taken tomorrow. I’d miss both of you too much to ever realize which I miss more.”  
  
“At least you know Dumbledore would never let anything happen to any of those being put under the lake,” Ginny said softly, and Harry nodded into his hands as each girl placed one on his back.  
  
“I know, but it’s still going to be hard in the morning,” he replied.  
  
“We trust you, Harry,” Tracey said. “No matter which of us is taken, we both trust you to get us out of danger every time it happens.”  
  
Harry finally looked up to see both girls worried but also determined, and he gave them slightly shaky smiles in thanks.  
  
Of course, that was when the twins showed up. The looks on their faces said that they had realized why they were there, and it was obvious they didn’t like it.  
  
“Which one is it?” Harry asked, a bit defeated as he knew the hostage idea was now proven as fact.  
  
“Ginny,” they said in one voice.  
  
“I’ll be with you in a minute,” the redhead said, and the twins nodded, walking a little away. “Harry, I’ll be fine, and you know what you’re doing. Just come get me in the morning, and nothing will happen, okay?”  
  
“Got it,” Harry said with a lopsided grin as he looked into her brown eyes that were shining with determination, obviously not going to be taking no for an answer.  
  
Right before she got up to join her older brothers, Ginny gave him a quick kiss, keeping it short and sweet because both of them had siblings around them. Then she was gone, headed up to the castle to find out how this was going to work.  
  
“She’ll be fine,” Tracey said softly as she helped Harry stand.  
  
“I know,” he replied, heading up to the castle to go get some sleep for the Task.

…

Albus Dumbledore watched as the hostages entered Professor McGonagall’s office. First came Gabrielle Delacour, Fleur Delacour’s younger sister, only eight years old. Next was the first of his own students, the fifth year Ravenclaw, Cho Chang, who had been chosen for Cedric Diggory. Not far behind her was Hermione Granger of Gryffindor for Viktor Krum. That was probably the oddest of the pairs, but Dumbledore was proud of Miss Granger for making such a connection to one of the students from another school.  
  
Of course, the last to enter was Ginny Weasley, also of Gryffindor. It would be quite odd to anyone who did not know how the school was organized these days to find out that the chosen hostage for a Slytherin was a Gryffindor, but it made complete sense knowing what Harry Potter was doing to the school.  
  
Unfortunately, it had taken quite a large debate to choose who would be the hostage for Mr. Potter. When all of the Champions’ names had been put through the special object the Ministry had provided, young Harry had had two people be shown at once: Tracey Davis and Ginny Weasley. It surprised many until, surprisingly, Professor Snape stepped forward to say that, while Miss Weasley was Harry’s girlfriend, Miss Davis was basically his twin, so they were both quite important to him. It had finally been decided to choose his girlfriend.  
  
“Do any of you know about the clue for the Second Task?” Dumbledore asked, knowing that Gabrielle knew English, even if she could not speak it well. All four nodded. “Ah, so you’ve all been informed that each Champion will be going after something they will sorely miss.” Another group nod. “Very good . The four of you are what they are going to be rescuing.”  
  
Dumbledore was surprised that Miss Granger looked quite shocked while Miss Weasley nodded and grinned sadly. It seemed Mr. Potter had told his girlfriend but not one of his closest friends; how interesting. Of course, Miss Delacour looked afraid while Miss Chang just nodded sadly in agreement.  
  
“I promise, nothing I am about to do will hurt you,” Dumbledore said as he pulled out his wand. “All I am doing is putting you in a deep sleep that will allow you to breathe while under the lake. When each of you reaches the surface, you shall wake up and be able to swim to shore with your Champion. Are you all ready?”  
  
All four slowly nodded, and Dumbledore waved his wand, glad he had put a Cushioning Charm on the floor before he had called them to the office. At least now he knew all four were ready. It seemed to him that all four had been slowly realizing something except for Miss Weasley, as if the Champions had told their hostage that they’d rescue them and were ready for what they had to do. Either way, he now had to get these four to the lake.

…

“Where’s Ginny?” Daphne asked the next morning as she got to the table with Blaise and Theo to find Tracey and Harry sitting alone. Tracey was rubbing his back and obviously trying to calm him down.  
  
“In the lake,” Harry said softly, visibly upset.  
  
“ _What_?” all three gasped quietly, sitting down at the table quickly.  
  
“Why is she down there?” Blaise demanded.  
  
“ _And while you’re searching, ponder this: We’ve taken what you’ll sorely miss,_ ” Harry quoted from the song, and all three were silent as they absorbed the information.  
  
“How long have you known this would happen?” Theo asked quietly.  
  
“Since the day I heard the song,” Harry sighed, picking up his goblet and taking a drink. Tracey continued to rub his back with one hand while eating with the other. “I didn’t want to worry anyone, so I kept it to myself; we all did.” Harry gestured to where each of the Champions was eating with their friends around them, each with someone trying to keep them calm.  
  
“You’ll get her back, Harry,” Tracey said so softly that Harry wasn’t sure that the others had heard her until they murmured their agreement. All he could do was grimace instead of smile as he forced a bit of toast down while drinking his water; he was unable to stomach anything else.  
  
Mentally, he was going over his checklist. He had an invisible knife or dagger on each thigh and arm as well as a second dagger on his right thigh. His wand was in the holster on his left forearm. On it was a brand new with a charm that allowed his wand to shoot into his hand with a very specific flick of the wrist or a hissed word in Parseltongue that he had used as the password. In each pocket of his swimming trunks was enough Gillyweed for an hour.  
  
Harry knew he was ready; all he had to do now was jump into that lake.

…

Tracey was the only friend with him when he got to the side of the lake where the Champions were to start from. Snape had told him when the professor was collecting Harry that he could only have one person there with him, and everyone else had almost literally shoved Tracey out of her seat to go with him.  
  
“Are you prepared?” Snape asked as they walked towards the lake ahead of the school.  
  
“Yes, sir,” Harry replied with a sharp nod, reaching into his pocket to show the Potions Master just a sliver of the slimy Gillyweed. The man’s eyes widened before his lip twitched and he nodded just as sharply as Harry had.  
  
“Very good, and I know you did not steal from me, which means you’ve been prepared for long enough to order some,” he said, and Harry knew that was as close to a compliment as he would get from his Head of House most of the time. “Have you used any yet?”  
  
“Once,” Harry replied as he felt Tracey’s hand squeeze on his arm slightly, probably wondering why he and Snape were doing this. She had no idea that this was Snape’s way of showing his approval of Harry and how thorough they had all been in preparing him for the Task.  
  
“It only took you the one trip?” Snape asked with a raised eyebrow.  
  
“I already knew where I was going,” Harry said with a smirk just as they reached the judges’ table.  
  
“Good luck, Potter,” were the last words Harry heard from Snape, and they were so quiet that Harry would have thought he had imagined them if Tracey’s hand hadn’t tightened on his arm in surprise.  
  
Cedric wasn’t very far behind Harry, and Viktor and Fleur were already there. Only Harry had someone else with him. None of the others minded her presence as Tracey was asking the older Champions about a sixth year spell she had come across in the Charms book while looking for ways to help Harry with the Task and was asking them about it. Her talking was distracting all four from what they were about to do and who was in the lake.  
  
“So it’ll actually make the table move?” Tracey was asking as the judges walked over to the group.  
  
“It’s a slightly different charm from one you’ll learn in fifth year for the OWLs to make a teacup dance,” Cedric explained as Viktor and Fleur nodded in agreement. “Not too difficult, but the wording is changed slightly, and the wand movement has more to it.”  
  
“Maybe ve vill show you after the Task,” Viktor suggested, and Tracey smiled in thanks.  
  
“Miss Davis, I’m sorry, but I must ask that you at the very least go over to the judge’s table for the duration of the Task,” Professor Dumbledore said, and Tracey nodded, but turned to Harry first.  
  
“You’ll do fine,” she said as she hugged him. “Go get Ginny as fast as you can. I’ll be waiting with a towel for both of you, and I know the others will rush down here once they’re allowed.”  
  
Harry nodded before she rushed over to the table. Once she was gone, the judges moved closer to the Champions. They began spacing them along the bank at ten foot intervals, but all four Champions exchanged looks of luck with the others, wanting to get their own hostages badly, but they didn’t want the others to fail either.  
  
Bagman put Harry into place and opened his mouth to speak, but Harry didn’t want to hear what the man had to say. The look in his eyes wasn’t one Harry liked all that much.  
  
Instead, Harry pulled off his robe and dragonhide cloak to reveal that he was only in his swimming trunks under them. Everyone could see the dagger and wand holster on his body, and Harry thought he might have seen Snape and McGonagall both nod in approval of his choice, but he couldn’t be sure. He took off his shoes and socks as well.  
  
Flicking his wrist, Harry drew his wand before throwing it into his right hand. Normally, he’d draw the wand instead of flicking it out as it was actually a bit easier since he didn’t use the holster much, especially on his left hand, but Harry only needed his wand to waterproof his glasses and to put warming charms on himself once the whistle was blown; then, he’d just use the dagger.  
  
Finally, Bagman used the _Sonorous_ charm on himself to begin announcing from the judge’s table.  
  
"Well, all our champions are ready for the Second Task, which will start on my count. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One… two… three!" The whistle was blown.  
  
The crowd cheered as Harry flicked his wand at himself to put on the two charms before putting his wand away. Then, quickly, Harry stuffed the slimy, rubbery Gillyweed in his mouth as he ran into the lake, knowing it would be in effect by the time he dived in as he had tried this during his practice run.  
  
Just as he dived under the water, his bare hands and feet became webbed, and Harry was sucking in water to breathe by through the newly-grown gills on his neck. He could see very well under the water, and he knew that he still wouldn’t be feeling the cold even without the charm, but Harry knew the charm would help for when he got out of the water, which was why he had used it .  
  
Swimming fast with his flipper-like feet, Harry sped past the other three, waving to them. Cedric and Fleur both had the Bubble-Head Charm around them, and Viktor had half-transfigured himself into a shark. Just before he left their sight, Harry pulled out his wand and used the one nonverbal spell Sirius and Remus had taught him: The one that allowed him to write in air. They had taught it to him as it would be useful in a fight to communicate with allies, even if it had taken him an entire summer to learn, as non-verbals were just _that hard_.  
  
_Go in this direction. Stay above grass. Grindylows down there._  
  
It was the best he could do to help the others without letting them get ahead of him. They all wanted to win, but at the same time, none of them wanted the others to fail as the Tournament was known for its deaths and there were hostages this time.  
  
All Harry could do now was speed towards where he knew the village was.  
  
It took him just over twenty minutes, but he got there while staying above the grass. As Harry got nearer to the village, he heard the song being sung again, but this time the Merpeople were saying that the time was nearly half-spent.  
  
The Merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Harry as he swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch him better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.  
  
Harry sped on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and he even saw a pet Grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching him eagerly, pointing at his webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another. Harry sped around a corner and a very strange sight met his eyes.  
  
A whole crowd of Merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a Mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic Merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone Merperson.  
  
Ginny was tied between Hermione and Cho Chang. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made Harry feel sure that she was Fleur Delacour's sister, Gabrielle, the one she had told them about. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.  
  
Harry looked behind him, trying to see if he could spot the other Champions, but he was the only one there right now. The Gillyweed had really made his ability to swim a hundred times better than normal.  
  
Sighing so that a few bubbles left his mouth, Harry sent out a message nonverbally that would go to each of the Champions no matter where they were. He knew that they would need reassurance that everyone was safe and unharmed. Plus, it meant he would be helping in some way without really helping.  
  
_Time half gone. All four safe and unharmed. Hurry._  
  
It was the best he could do to be fair while also being first.  
  
With that done, Harry put his wand away, took out his dagger to cut Ginny loose, and began swimming towards the surface as fast as he could with one of his arms holding Ginny to him by the waist.  
  
Before too long, Harry saw light appearing above him, getting brighter and larger as he neared the surface. It didn’t take long for him to break the surface, Ginny with him, but Harry quickly ducked back under as he still had the gills.  
  
He could only watch as Ginny blinked and looked around before grinning down at him, which looked odd as the water made her face distorted and hard to see. Still, Harry knew she was grinning by how her hands were holding him, and he smiled back before swimming towards the shore, keeping a hold of his girlfriend as he did.  
  
When he got to shore, Tracey was waiting with Madam Pomfrey. The healer let Tracey put a towel around Ginny along with a warming charm while she gave the redhead a Pepperup Potion. Then both girls bent down to sit next to Harry as he hung out in the shallows, waiting for the Gillyweed to wear off. All Madam Pomfrey had to say about it was that Harry had to find her once he was able to.  
  
“We told you you’d do fine,” Ginny said to Harry, who could hear well as he was near the surface and could put his ear above it as long as the other set of gills was still underwater.  
  
He rolled his eyes, and both girls giggled before all three just smiled. Ginny ran a hand through his hair that was above water while Tracey put a hand on his arm under it.  
  
Pretty soon, Harry saw Cedric and Cho pop out of the water, and he put his hands above the water to cheer. Viktor followed with Hermione soon after. Finally, just before the hour was up, Fleur and her sister Gabrielle were above water, their silvery blond hair quite visible against the blue of the lake.  
  
Just as the two girls reached the shore, Harry suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe, and he knew the Gillyweed was done. Smiling, Harry finally got out of the lake, where Tracey and Ginny wrapped him in a towel even though he complained, saying his Warming Charm was still active. They just rolled their eyes at him and dragged him Madam Pomfrey for Pepperup Potion, which he took grudgingly, hating how hot the stuff was.  
  
Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief Merperson, a particularly wild and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water; clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and said, "A conference before we give the marks, I think."  
  
The other three Champions converged on Harry and his two friends, the girls they had saved at their sides. Harry was surprised by this, especially when Fleur hugged him tightly and Viktor and Cedric smiled at him.  
  
“You gave us ‘elp even though we are competing. Your message gave me ‘ope zat Gabrielle was okay, and she was,” Fleur stated.  
  
“She’s right, you know,” Cedric said. “Without that message, I’d have been more freaked out, and I wouldn’t have gotten there as fast. You just knew where to go, but instead of just going, you told us where to go.”  
  
Beside him, Tracey and Ginny were staring at Harry in disbelief, as were Hermione and Cho, though the former three more than the latter. Gabrielle was just holding onto her sister tightly.  
  
“Ve vould haff found them, but it vould haff been much later,” Viktor stated with a sharp nod. “Your help let us find them quickly, and vithout getting hurt.”  
  
“I do not know what ze Grindylows are, but your advice told me to stay away from ze grass, so I did,” Fleur stated. “Right at ze end of ze grass, I saw zese creatures, and Cedric says zey are ze Grindylows you mentioned. I would ‘ave had to give up without your advice. You deserve ze most points and first place, ‘Arry.”  
  
“We agreed to help one another,” Harry stated. “All I did was give you information I knew that only I had. I swam in that lake ahead of time and found the Merpeople; I knew where to go.”  
  
“But you didn’t have to,” Cedric stated. “I know that you acted like a Slytherin by being sure you were in first before helping us, but you didn’t even have to help us. That was a mix of a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff thing to do, Harry.”  
  
“Well, he _has_ always said he could have been in any of the Houses,” Ginny said with a bit of laughter in her voice. “I guess he’s proven it today by doing all of that while also knowing exactly what he was doing.”  
  
Before anyone could say anything else, Ludo Bagman was using _Sonorous_ again to speak to the crowd as well as the Champions.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows…  
  
"Fleur Delacour demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm and retrieved her hostage last of the Champions, but she also arrived within the time limit, if only just barely. Therefore, and for other reasons to be mentioned, we award her forty-seven points.”  
  
“Why not the full fifty?” Harry asked curiously, and it seemed everyone else was just as curious.  
  
“Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was the second to arrive with his hostage and came at about three-fourths of the way through the hour. With that in mind as well as something else, we award him forty-eight points!”  
  
“Now I’m really confused,” Cedric stated. “I was perfect, yet… Oh.”  
  
“What?” everyone else asked him as Bagman waited for the cheering to die down.  
  
“Viktor, Fleur, did you also have something in front of you all the way to the village?” he asked, turning away from Harry. It was obvious by the looks on their faces that they understood as they nodded, but they also didn’t want _him_ to understand it. “That would be why.”  
  
“Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was third to return with his hostage. We award him forty-seven points as well.”  
  
This time, Harry didn’t say anything as he realized he wouldn’t get an answer. The three other Champions were grinning happily as they continued to watch Bagman, confusing everyone else in the group.  
  
"Harry Potter used Gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued. “He returned first of all the Champions, he was first to the hostages, and he even has something more. The reason the others did not get full points was because of something Merchieftainess Murcus has told us.  
  
“It seems that just before Mr. Potter left the village to return to the surface, he used a nonverbal spell that went off in three different directions. Only when the Champions arrived did the Merchieftainess realize what he had done. Each Champion had a message in front of them from Mr. Potter that led them to the village, most likely without his knowledge of what he had done.”  
  
Harry was indeed shocked. He hadn’t realized that his spell would do anything more than tell them the message and disappear. It was only when he thought back that he remembered nonverbal magic responds to wishes at times, and he had wanted to help the others, that it made sense.  
  
“The message said nothing more than that the time was half done, which was when Mr. Potter arrived at the village, and that the hostages were safe, but it seems Mr. Potter helped the others. Because of this along with his other achievements in the Second Task, it was almost unanimously voted,” Bagman glared at Karkaroff for a moment before finishing, “that he receive fifty points out of fifty while the others lose two or three.”  
  
All around the stands, people were cheering loudly, and Harry was just shocked as Tracey and Ginny hugged him.  
  
“I — I didn’t do that on purpose,” Harry said slowly.  
  
“We didn’t know that before now,” Cedric said with a smile, “but that just makes it even better because it tells us that you wanted to help but didn’t know how, so your magic helped for you. Non-verbal magic is just different like that at times.”  
  
Fleur hugged him again, and Viktor and Cedric shook his hand before Bagman could speak one final time.  
  
"The third and final Task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The Champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the Champions."  
  
Harry, smiling, done with the Second Task, and ready to relax for a while after going to the dorms to change, headed back up to the castle, knowing that his friends would be waiting to celebrate in The Den. Even better, basically the whole school would be there along with the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons kids.  
  
The celebrations and getting to see everyone interact well together always made the Tasks worth it.


	24. Chapter Twenty-Four

Harry was surprised the day after the Second Task when Tracey and Ginny dragged him up to the Room of Requirement and threw him onto a couch, hitting him upside the head and on the arm.

“Ow! What was that for?” he groaned. The blows hadn’t hurt that much, but he hadn’t been expecting them at all.

“Those were for keeping the information you had on the Second Task from us,” Ginny stated as both girls took a seat on the couch facing from Harry’s.

“Oh…” he muttered, and both girls glared at him.

“Why?” was all Tracey asked, but Harry knew that they knew. The girls just wanted to hear it from him.

“Everyone was worrying enough already because _I_ was going into the lake,” he said. “None of us wanted to worry the people we knew would be held hostage in the lake, let alone the rest of our friends. It would just let everyone worry, so all four of us kept silent about the idea Cedric had, preparing ourselves to rescue someone we care about.”

“If you _ever_ do something like that again, Harry James Potter, we will _both_ make you regret it,” Ginny stated vehemently, her arms still crossed over her chest, as were Tracey’s. “Do you understand?”

Harry sighed and nodded, realizing there was no other response he could give that would get him out of trouble. Fortunately for him, the girls calmed down a bit after that, though it was obvious both were still upset at him for keeping that little detail from them until the night before the Task.

Before anyone could say anything, Harry felt something warm up against his side. Groaning quietly, Harry made a motion with one hand to keep his two friends quiet while the other went to his right side to unhook the top of a thin, circular leather case attached to his belt, inside of which there was a mirror.

_There went that secret_ , Harry thought as he pulled out the warm mirror that Sirius was calling him through.

“Yes, Sirius?” he said, already knowing why his godfather was calling him; Harry hadn’t called last night to tell him about the Task.

“You haven’t called yet!” Sirius almost yelled through the mirror. “You said you’d call last night if you had the energy, or by ten this morning if you didn’t! It’s almost eleven, Harry; eleven!” Harry was having a hard time not laughing at the look on Sirius’ face in the mirror; it was the picture of pure impatience.

“I was on my to the Room to call you from when I got a bit distracted…” Harry said sheepishly, looking up at Ginny and Tracey. Both girls were staring at him and the mirror in disbelief, probably amazed that they hadn’t known about it after almost six months of school.

“What do you mean _distracted_?” Sirius demanded.

In response, Harry just turned the mirror from his sheepish face to the still-shocked faces of his friends. It meant Sirius would now understand.

“Oh,” Sirius said quietly. “Well, hello Ginny, Tracey, it’s nice to see your faces after so long, no matter how shocked they are.”

Neither girl could say anything as Harry turned the mirror back to himself. He could tell that Sirius was trying not to laugh at his friends. He completely understood as he would normally be doing the same thing, if it wasn’t for those little details such as them threatening him just minutes before and how he hadn’t wanted either of them to know of the mirror yet.

“They had no idea about this, did they?” Sirius asked, and Harry shook his head silently. “A very interesting way for them to find out, then.”

“And it’s all your fault, Padfoot,” Harry complained. “If you hadn’t gotten so bloody impatient, I’d have been able to keep this to myself for another few months!”

“Well _so-rry_ for being worried about my godson who, may I mention, just went through a second deadly Task for a tournament he shouldn’t even _be_ in?”

_Oh great_ , Harry thought, now _Sirius_ was annoyed with him as well.

“Your godson doesn’t earn any of the worry you have for him,” Ginny said aloud, finally speaking as she moved to look into the mirror. “He kept what he knew of the Task from all of us for months.”

“How so?” Sirius asked, sounding very interested. Internally, Harry was groaning.

“Turns out what they were going into the lake to rescue was hostages, and Harry’s known it for months,” Ginny stated a bit harshly, obviously still annoyed at him. “He’s known it would be either Tracey or me since December, yet he didn’t say anything until the night before the Task, just moments before Gred and Forge came to bring me to McGonagall’s office.”

“ _Harry_ ,” Sirius said in a mock-disappointed voice. “You should know better than that.”

“He was trying to stop us from worrying,” Tracey said quietly, and Harry was thankful to her. Just that one sentence and he knew she had forgiven him. Sure, he wanted to win the Tournament, but he didn’t want to worry his friends any more than him being in the Tournament already did, and she understood that.

“His Gryffindor side was showing again, I see,” Sirius laughed, obviously amused that a Slytherin even _had_ a Gryffindor side.

“I guess you don’t want to know what happened during the task, Padfoot,” Harry said in amusement, and that shut Sirius up very quickly. “Thought so.”

After that, Ginny explained what had happened to the hostages, Tracey explained what the judges had said and everything leading up to the Task, and Harry described what had happened underwater. When it came to how Harry had helped the other Champions while still staying in the lead, Sirius muttered something about Slytherin and Gryffindor, though it wasn’t loud enough for Harry to catch anything more.

As all three informed Sirius of what had occurred about the points, he had burst out laughing. None of them understood until he explained it.

“It’s just so like Dumbledore and Bagman to do something like that,” he said. “Especially Dumbledore as he’s probably seeing this as Harry being on the light side for sure, which means he should be easy to manipulate. In reality, we all know that this is Harry just being Harry and being rewarded for it.”

It still wasn’t all that funny, but Harry now had a lot more to think about, especially when it came to Dumbledore. The Headmaster wanted Harry under his thumb, and if there was anything Harry wasn’t about to do, that would be it.

“Sounds like you had one hell of a Task there, Pup,” Sirius stated once everything had been said about the Task.

“Definitely,” Harry agreed, “and that’s _with_ all the preparations. I’m afraid to even think about what that would have been like without them.”

“A disaster,” Tracey muttered, and Harry privately agreed, even though no one commented on her comment.

“Well, I’d better go inform Moony on how it went before he does something drastic trying to find out,” Sirius said. “You three have fun, and Harry?”

“Yeah, Padfoot?”

“Even if you don’t know what the Third Task will be until May, don’t stop researching and practicing new spells; you never know what will come in handy for the Task.”

“I won’t, Padfoot,” Harry promised, already thinking about Slytherin’s journal and how he and Ginny would need to work on that again.

With that, Sirius put his mirror away, and Harry did the same before turning to face the two girls, knowing they’d be laying one on him again for keeping it a secret.

“Why didn’t you tell us you had this?” Tracey asked quietly, no emotion in her voice as she was obviously trying to figure it out. Ginny was just watching him. Harry just sighed before replying.

“I wanted to know that there was a way I could talk to Sirius that no one else knew about or could block,” Harry said slowly. “If too many people know about the mirrors, someone could do something to it or block it from being useable. I know you both wouldn’t tell,” he added quickly as he saw a bit of anger in their eyes, “but I didn’t know who could hear me as I explained it or what might happen if someone heard us talking about it. It was just easier to keep it to myself.”

“We’ll let it go this time as we know Sirius is your godfather,” Ginny stated, her eyes a lot softer than they had been earlier.

“But no more keeping secrets from us, okay?” Tracey finished.

“No more secrets,” Harry agreed, mentally thinking that he only had one secret to keep that led to a few smaller ones, but it wasn’t breaking the promise as Ginny knew about Sebae and the journal, even if Tracey didn’t.

One quick glance told Harry that his guess was right as Ginny agreed that her knowing about Sebae meant he wasn’t breaking the promise, even if Tracey would be upset when she eventually found out.

At least they weren’t mad at him anymore — for now.

…

“ _You did well, little one,_ ” Sebae hissed as she lightly licked Harry’s cheek once he and Ginny had finished telling her about the Task. “ _Keeping a secret from those you love to keep them from worrying might not be something they like, but it is very noble. It reminds me of what Salazar described Godric doing at times.”_

_“Just more proof that you could have been in any House,_ ” Ginny hissed in amusement. “ _Of course, it’s also the reason you’re the Chosen Heir. Only someone with traits to fit all of the Houses could have brought them together.”_

_“Harry did not have to be able to be in any House to be the Chosen Heir,_ ” Sebae said. “ _He has to be a Slytherin and work to bring the Houses together, nothing more. How he could have been Sorted only helps make that possible.”_

_“Can you stop talking as if I’m not here_?” Harry demanded with his arms crossed over his chest. “ _I’m not deaf, you know.”_

_“You sure act like you are at times,_ ” Ginny commented with a raised eyebrow, and Harry groaned.

“ _I’m sure you know as well as I do that that’s my way of keeping out of fights between people until I’m needed or to keep myself out of trouble,_ ” Harry muttered, and he knew by her grin that Ginny did know. “ _Anyway, weren’t we going to do something else while we were here?”_

_“Oh yeah; the charm_!” Ginny exclaimed, suddenly remembering it.

“ _Sebae, Ginny and I need to practice the Invisibility Charm Salazar created just for you,_ ” Harry hissed, turning to the giant snake as Ginny moved to be next to him.

“ _Of course,_ ” she replied. “ _I remember Salazar using it on me all those years ago.”_

_“So you know how to use your eyes with it on, then_?” Ginny asked quickly, and Sebae nodded her head. “ _Great!”_

_“Sumo Futurus Turpis,_ ” Harry whispered, aiming his wand at Sebae, smiling a bit as it worked.

Suddenly, Sebae’s yellow eyes appeared off to their right before disappearing again. Harry and Ginny could hear her moving, but Harry knew that in a battle she’s be silent compared to the rest of the sounds of fighting. As long as she didn’t hiss at all, which she wasn’t even doing right now, no one would know she was there until they died seeing her yellow eyes. Of course, not hissing would also mean Voldemort wouldn’t know a snake was around, and he was the most likely to attack Hogwarts while Harry was alive.

“ _Exsisto Promptus,_ ” Harry muttered, pointing his wand at the yellow eyes as they appeared again. Sebae came back into view, and Ginny quickly hit her with the spell again. All in all, Sebae had been visible for all of three seconds.

“ _This will be a huge advantage if Hogwarts is ever attacked, especially if it’s Riddle,_ ” Harry hissed in amusement, and Ginny was smirking next to him.

“ _It’ll be so brilliant to be able to make him realize we’re using the basilisk he used to control against him,_ ” she agreed. “ _Justice and revenge.”_

_“Let us just hope I am never needed,_ ” Sebae reminded them as Ginny made her visible again and all three settled down. “ _While I do not like that Heir of Salazar, I would rather not get a chance to get my revenge on him for making me attack students than have him attack this school._ ”

“ _So would we, Sebae,_ ” Harry sighed, “ _so would we_.”

…

Harry walked into the Room of Requirement on the Saturday morning after the Task, and immediately a black snake around three feet long wrapped itself around his leg and slithered up to rest around his torso. Light green eyes looked into his emerald green ones, and Harry chuckled slightly as he closed the door and moved into the room.

“ _Enjoying your first transformation_?” he hissed in amusement.

“ _Very much so_!” the snake that was Maya hissed in excitement, and Harry only laughed again.

Looking past Maya, he saw Graham and Natalie were sitting with Tracey, almost done with their first transformation. It seemed they were both just missing the head, so Tracey was trying to talk them through the final step, which was the whole thing at once.

Ginny and Harry had asked Ankh if he would help Maya, and he had agreed, so they had been acting as translators for the corn snake during most of the training sessions. Of course, in the end, Maya would have to finish it on her own, but she had admitted that the advice from Ankh had been quite useful, just as Tracey’s advice had helped the two first years.

“ _I’m glad to know you and Ginny can understand me while I’m transformed,_ ” Maya added suddenly, and Harry smiled.

“ _I’ll be useful, that’s for sure,_ ” he agreed, ideas of how it would be useful already zooming around in his mind. “ _I wonder if I can still understand and talk to you while I’m transformed…_ ”

“ _Try it_?” she suggested, sliding off of him as he pulled his bag off of his shoulder.

Harry transformed into his wolf form. It had been a while since he had done so, so he stretched and tested out his senses, running around in a circle for a little to readjust to it, though everything always came naturally. In his mind, it was nice to be a wolf again.

“ _Having fun_?” he heard Maya hiss, and he turned towards her and showed all his teeth in a grin.

“ _Lots_ ,” he hissed, somehow knowing how to instinctively move his wolf tongue to make the sounds. “ _Wow, this is just instinctive, as if it doesn’t matter what form I’m in._ ”

“ _This will be useful if we ever use our forms to fight; three of us can communicate, two in human form,_ ” Maya mused. “ _Plus we have Ankh, so there are two snakes that can go out ahead unnoticed._ ”

“ _Very useful,_ ” Harry agreed before holding out a paw to Maya, touching it to the ground so that she realized what he was offering.

“ _Really_?” she asked, and he nodded, snorting.

Maya slithered up his leg and around his torso again. He then padded over to where the two first years were with Tracey, still trying to transform. They stayed there, just watching the pair as Tracey walked over and scratched Harry’s head while trying to help.

“When Ginny, Hermione, and I all transformed, it was because of what Harry had told us,” she said. “We all closed our eyes, and we imagined what Harry told us to imagine while remembering our forms. In our own ways, we changed it around slightly, but in the end, it all came out the same: We were transformed. I’m going to try the same thing with both of you.

“Picture that you’re outside, grass all around you. Your ears are twitching as you hear a sound nearby. Listening, you decide to run towards it, your paws hitting the soil under the grass as you run as fast as you can, the wind blowing through your fur and making your whiskers fly all around. The sun heats up your body, and you feel as if nothing can catch you even if you are just a small little cat.”

Harry was grinning as he saw the pair twitching, fur slowly growing to cover their faces and ears growing from their rapidly-shrinking hair. A pink nose was on the end of their noses while whiskers grew from their cheeks and fur covered the skin completely, their bodies shrinking to the size of a housecat. They had transformed.

“Open your eyes,” Tracey whispered, and slowly, green and brown eyes opened.

Each cat looked the other over before rushing over to the mirror to see itself, and it was obvious they were happy and pleased with the result. One black cat and one light brown cat, though her fur was darker than Tracey’s.

Before transforming herself, Tracey poured both of them their potions. Once that was done, the three of them were playing around. At one point in time Tracey led the two new cats around, seeing how much they could do in their forms as they would learn more as time went on.

“ _They’re having fun,_ ” Maya commented from her resting place on Harry’s head. They had long since moved so that Harry was on his stomach on the floor with Maya on top of him, both of them just watching as the others trained around them, many transformed to play around.

“ _I’m glad,_ ” Harry whispered quietly. “ _They’re only eleven; they need to have a chance to grow up and have fun before the war starts, which is why you’ll enjoy the war games we play during the summer._ ”

“ _I’m sure we’ll enjoy it immensely,_ ” Maya said.

Both tried not to laugh as Graham fell on top of Natalie. Harry was grinning anyway, glad that they could still have fun with everything going on.

…

“Are we ever going to have that Quidditch tournament?” Blaise complained one evening as Harry and his friends were hanging out in The Den.

Those around them, including many not among Harry’s friends, perked up at the idea of it. Suddenly, there was much complaining and questioning until it spread throughout The Den, reaching even those in other rooms. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students rushed to get friends and Viktor until all the Quidditch players in the school, many not even on the House teams, were in the center of the room with Harry and his friends.

“See what you did?” Harry groaned to Blaise, who looked quite sheepish as he recognized the chaos that had ensued from his question. “Okay, everyone quiet!” Everyone in the room was quiet as they all turned to where Harry had just stood up from his seat.

“Why don’t we start the unofficial tournament next weekend?” he suggested. “Lee Jordan will commentate as usual, and we’ll have a game every weekend with more teams in the tournament than usual. We’ll do this until either we’re told to stop or until we Champions are informed of the final Task so that we’ll be busy preparing. Is that fair?”

Around Harry, people were nodding in agreement. It seemed they found his ideas fair, though they were all now curious about the teams.

“Okay, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang can each have one or two teams depending upon how many of their students play. The normal House teams, which I know are short players as many have graduated, will form and fill in missing positions. Then each House can have a second team for those who want to play with reserves from the other team if something happens to a player. Think of this as a way to find potential players for future years or just reserves for next year.”

“What if the captains of a House are gone?” Draco asked, and all the Slytherins and Gryffindors in the room muttered in agreement as their Houses were the missing their captains after last year.

“The team can elect one for the games,” Harry said with a grin. “Who knows? Maybe that’ll give the Heads of House a little hint on who we want as a captain for the team next year. So, are we all in agreement?” Nods and sounds of agreement were heard around the room. “I suggest making your teams now, then, and we’ll have a schedule for practices on the board in here starting tomorrow; no more than two a week per team.”

No one could complain with the number of teams that would be on the pitch for practices, so everyone split off. Harry could see the Gryffindor team along with other players like Ginny and Demelza over in one circle with Angelina talking while Cedric was in charge of the Hufflepuffs. Roger Davies was helping out with the Ravenclaws, and the Slytherins had all converged on him.

“Quiet!” Daphne called around the Slytherins, and they all were quiet so that it would be easier to speak.

“We need Beaters,” Draco stated once it was quiet. “After that we can decide on the second team.” Harry nodded and looked up at Astoria, who was sitting quietly by Daphne and glanced up when she felt his gaze.

“I know what you’re going to ask,” she said softly, and everyone looked at her in confusion until they saw Harry watching her. “If you’re willing, I guess I’ll play.”

“Anyone else a pretty good Beater?” Harry called to the Slytherins around him, and no one was willing to own up to any skill until Maya growled aloud and pushed her brother forward.

“Put him on the team,” she stated. “Trust me, he’s a really good Beater. Unfortunately, he’s a bit too afraid to own up to it right now. Just watch him play at practice and you’ll see.”

Harry and Draco nodded before Draco spoke up, “And which of us is going to be captain?” He was looking at Harry, but Harry was shaking his head. There was no way he wanted to be captain.

“Draco, I’m the Seeker,” he stated, and Draco looked a bit confused. “All I do in practice is try to find the Snitch. I have no idea about plays or anything except not to get hit by a Bludger or another player. Besides, Seekers are so out of the game because we’re up high and have to pay attention to finding the Snitch that I’d be a terrible captain. You do it.”

“Me?” he asked in shock, but around Harry, the rest of the people on the team, even Astoria and Graham, were all nodding.

“You know your plays,” Blaise agreed. “I’ve also seen you make up new ones and teach them to Theo and Daphne. It takes me forever to catch onto some of them because they’re so good and unexpected.”

“We’d follow your lead,” Daphne added, gesturing between herself and a nodding Theo as she said it.

“You’re captain of our team,” Theo stated, and Draco slowly began to grin. It was then that Harry knew he’d make the better captain between him and Draco, so he had to hope that Snape would choose Draco next year for the badge.

“I think Draco should choose the second team,” Harry said, not wanting to have to deal with it at all. “I mean, if he’s going to be captain of our team for the tournament, he should help out with the other team for Slytherin, right?”

Around Harry, most agreed, though it was obvious most of the younger students were wishing he’d help out. When they tried to beg him to help, Harry just shook his head determinedly. He knew Draco needed to do something like this.

“Let me know when practice is,” he called over his shoulder as he left The Den with Tracey, leaving the rest around Draco.

All he got in response was a wave of Draco’s hand, which made him and Tracey chuckle. It was obvious that Draco fit into his role of two minutes well.


	25. Chapter Twenty-Five

“And Angelina Johnson is headed towards the Slytherin goals!” Lee Jordan yelled during the third game Harry had played in that month. It had been a crazy month full of practices, classes, and training for the unknown Task. Now, though, Harry was above the Slytherin vs. Gryffindor match using the first teams; the second teams would be playing next week.

“Oh! She drops the Quaffle as a Bludger almost hits her in the head! Nice Bludger by the Slytherin Beater, Pritchard. Hard to believe he’s only a first year.”

Graham had, indeed, lived up to Maya’s words. He was just as good a Beater as the Weasley twins once he got going , and together with the ball of energy known as Astoria, they were out-Beating the Weasleys this game.

“Malfoy in possession of the Quaffle, and he passes to Greengrass, who returns it in an overhead toss over Bell. The Gryffindors weren’t expecting that! Ouch! A Bludger to the arm for Malfoy, but it was too late! He had already spotted it, knew he wouldn’t get out of the way, and passed the Quaffle to Nott, who was almost directly below him! Nice Bludger by Weasley, and a nice reaction by Malfoy and Nott.

“Nott’s headed towards the Gryffindor goalposts! Come on Weasley number three, save it!” Lee called to Ron through the megaphone . “Nott gets ready to throw, and… drops the Quaffle on purpose? Oh! A well done play as Greengrass grabs the Quaffle from well below him and scores through the very bottom of the right goalpost! Too bad, Ron; maybe next time! One-sixty to seventy, Slytherin in the lead.

“Gryffindor in possession again.”

Harry smirked a little as he recognized the play as one Draco had come up with during practice. Randomly dropping the Quaffle while preparing to throw it confused the Keeper immensely, giving the second Chaser a chance to score. He had been planning on it being so sudden and random that the Keeper couldn’t keep up, which was the case this time.

Shaking his head, Harry went back to searching for the Snitch, Patricia on the other side of the Pitch as she searched as well. Both had been searching for a couple of hours.

Draco as captain had certainly changed the way Slytherin played. It was more sly and confusing compared to the powerhouse that the team had been in Harry’s first year where he had been the crucial player for Slytherin’s win as most of the team couldn’t play as well.

“And one of the Weasley twins hits Greengrass in the side, she drops the Quaffle!” Lee called.

Harry winced slightly, knowing that would leave a bruise, and flew towards the Gryffindor goalposts. He circled around them and went higher into the air as he began flying in a figure-eight over the match. The Snitch was being very elusive this match, annoying Patricia and Harry immensely, even if they couldn’t do anything about it.

Lee had just called out “Two hundred to one-ten, Slytherin!” when Harry finally spotted the Snitch as a moving flash of gold near one of the Weasley twins, who Harry barely recognized as Fred before tearing off after it, being closer than Patricia.

He wove in and out of players in crimson and green, just barely ducking under Astoria as he passed her, going down into a dive. Behind him, Harry could almost hear Patricia following, trying to catch up.

It didn’t matter, though, as Harry reached out with his right hand and closed it around the Snitch as he used his left arm to pull up sharply, only about two feet above the ground.

Raising the Snitch above his head, Harry grinned at the final score of three hundred-sixty to one hundred-twenty.

_Another match won_ , Harry thought as his teammates flew towards him, grins on their faces, thinking about how Slytherin was in the lead for the tournament.

…

Harry listened closely to the light, almost silent breathing as well as the barely audible sock-covered footsteps, trying to keep a map in his mind of where Tracey and Ginny both were. The black cloth covering his eyes was stuck to him with a charm that only the castor could remove, so Harry ignored it, letting his other senses take over.

A slight tingling and a foot moving slightly closer to him was all the warning Harry got before he heard Ginny mutter a spell under her breath, but Harry was already moving. He slid to the right in his socks, ducking under the spell Tracey had suddenly sent from behind him.

Over and over, Harry dodged, ducked, and slid to escape being hit by a Stinging Hex from Tracey or Ginny, his ears and instincts motivating him. At times a spell would lightly touch his bare arm, meaning it had just missed him, while at others they would hit him dead on in places he hadn’t been expecting the spell like his foot or an ear. Even with random parts of his body stinging, though, Harry continued on, ignoring pain and exhaustion as he fought to keep moving.

“Stop,” Tracey finally said, and Harry didn’t even say anything as he sunk to his knees and took deep breaths, trying to regain the ability to breathe normally.

A light whisper and the feel of the cloth falling from his face told Harry that they were done for now.

Hands put his glasses back on his face, but Harry kept his eyes closed as both girls helped him stand and sit down on a couch that the Room must have provided. It wasn’t until a water bottle was shoved into his hand that he looked up.

“Are you okay?” Ginny asked softly, and Harry nodded as he gulped down the water quickly.

“We were starting to hit you more and more, so I knew you needed to stop,” Tracey informed him, and Harry nodded in both understanding and thanks.

“Hopefully this will be helpful,” he said once he had drained the water bottle. “We’re still not sure what the Task will be, remember?”

“Having good reflexes will be good no matter what the Task is, Harry,” Tracey reminded him, and Harry nodded, rolling his eyes as she had said this more than once over the past few days.

“In fact, I think we should all do this,” Ginny said, and Harry looked at her a bit sharply, wondering what she meant. “For our training, I mean,” she elaborated. “Everyone should take turns trying to dodge Stinging Hexes while blindfolded. It’ll help our instincts when it comes to dueling in case someone else joins the battle or if you can’t see.”

“True, and it’ll make everyone more paranoid at my house during the summer,” Harry smirked. Just the thought of pointing a wand at someone only for the humorous reaction was amusing him and making him look forward to the summer.

“Worry about the Task before anything else, Harry!” Tracey exclaimed, drawing him back to the fact that it was already almost April. While he still had another two months or so before the Task, no one knew how bad it was going to be, so he had to remember to take it seriously, even if he didn’t want to constantly worry.

“I know, Trace,” he sighed, and she put a hand on his shoulder. “I really just wish I didn’t have to do this! Why was I even entered in this Tournament? I’m only fourteen.”

“When this dumb Tournament is over, we’re going to try and figure that out,” Ginny promised, Tracey nodding in agreement. “For now, are you up to practicing some more?”

“Let’s try this one again,” Harry said as he forced himself up from the couch, offering a hand to each girl to help them stand up.

He ignored the pain in his body as all three got back into position, the blindfold back on his face. Preparing for the Task, no matter how far away, was more important than worrying about a bit of pain that would go away in a few hours.

…

Harry grinned while looking at the chart on the bulletin board in The Den. It had each Quidditch team listed with its points in the order of its standing depending on the number of points the team had. Another chart had the same thing but with the number of wins, losses, and ties.

Slytherin and Durmstrang were tied with the most number of wins, but Slytherin had more points than Durmstrang, followed by Gryffindor before Durmstrang.

The second Slytherin team that Draco had put together wasn’t doing that badly in 7th place overall out of ten teams. It was certainly the best of all the secondary teams, of which each Hogwarts House had one.

The tournament was a huge success among the students. Each match had almost the entire House of whatever teams were playing as well as others who just wanted to watch as spectators. Most matches had at least a few members of the staff watching while Lee commentated and Madam Hooch refereed, if only to keep it safe for the players.

No House won any points for the matches, but it made them more fun. This way there wasn’t anything actually at stake but pride, so mostly they were playing to have fun.

The plan was to have a final match between the top two teams when the professors informed the students that the Pitch had to be closed. It was an unspoken agreement that the Pitch was going to be used for the Third Task — why else would they cancel Quidditch?

As of right now, Harry thought, it would be Slytherin vs. Durmstrang as they were both in the top three of each chart. _That_ would probably be the match with the most spectators, especially because Harry and Viktor had agreed not to let their two teams play until the second-to-last game unless they were to be in the final game together. Everyone wanted to see their teams play, but no one could deny that having them at the end would be worth the wait.

…

Ron, who was sitting at one of the two-person tables with his chess set ready for a game in The Den, was surprised when someone sat down across from him. It was rare that someone would play with him unless dared, for a bet, or without being nagged into it.

Of course, when Ron looked up and saw Harry sitting across from him, emerald eyes looking into his blue ones with a hidden message in them, Ron understood and moved his white pawn forward two spots.

The pair played in silence except for commands for a few minutes, each boy taking his time to decide upon a move. Finally, Harry broke the silence.

“Are your friends ready?” he asked softly, and Ron didn’t even look up as he made his move to begin putting Harry into a trap while thinking over the question that he didn’t need explained.

“You’ll need to ask Hermione about Lavender and Parvati, but Dean and Seamus have been hanging out with the guys from our year more and more, even Blaise and Theo,” Ron finally replied, mentally cursing as Harry ruined the trap he had been planning by doing an unexpected move while beginning to formulate a new one.

“This Saturday,” Harry said, meaning in six days, “will they be ready?”

“They might be,” Ron said. “I haven’t let them see my Journal yet, so I’m not sure if they can see them yet.”

Movement caught Ron’s eye, but he saw that it was Harry’s black snake Ankh and didn’t make another move. A quiet hiss from Harry informed Ron that his friend was asking the snake something. When the snake slithered away in the direction of where he had seen Ginny sitting earlier before suddenly disappearing altogether, Ron knew that Ankh was going to ask Ginny a question for Harry.

“He’ll let us know if they can in a few minutes,” Harry stated, and Ron looked into the teen’s eyes before nodding.

“They’re over there with her?” he asked, and Harry looked up sharply before grinning a bit and nodding.

“You’re more observant than people give you credit for, Ron,” he whispered quietly, but Ron heard it with a bit of shock. “I mean it, Ron.” Ron just grinned before claiming one of Harry’s knights.

“Hey, Ron?” Harry asked quietly after a few more moves.

“Yeah, Harry?”

“Meet me by the lake tomorrow, an hour after classes are over.” Ron looked up in confusion, but Harry seemed to be staring through him instead of at him, the look in his eyes saying he was thinking quickly. “I’ve got something difficult to ask you, and I don’t want to be overheard.”

“I’ll be there,” Ron agreed.

From then on, they finished the game in silence, only interrupted by Ankh informing them that Ron’s friends were able to see the Journals, Ron winning the game with only one more move before Harry would have won.

…

“That was a nice addition to the group,” Harry sighed as he sat down on a couch in The Den, looking around at the new group of people being shown how to use the Journals by younger students and friends their own ages.

“I still can’t believe the twins got that many people to join the group,” Draco muttered. “Well, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle are expecting me, so I’ll see you all later.” He left to various goodbyes from the group.

“How did they get almost all of fifth and sixth years in the group except for the Slytherins?” Susan suddenly asked.

“By being the twins,” Ginny replied with a smirk.

“Should we be afraid of that look?” Terry stage-whispered to Padma, who looked Ginny’s face over quickly before nodding quite seriously. Everyone burst out laughing, and it wasn’t until they calmed down that anyone even tried to speak again.

“I believe the twins just pointed details out to the older students with help from Cedric and the girls,” Hermione said, and everyone nodded thoughtfully; it was quite believable.

“The Gryffindors have been a bit easier to convince since Ron stopped being a brat,” Neville said, surprising most at his wording.

“Your being in the Tournament along with Cedric and the fight we had over it helped,” Natalie added with a grin from beside Graham, who was trying to look bored while really quite interested.

“It probably helped in Ravenclaw as well,” Padma admitted sheepishly.

“Though Cedric being your friend and dating Cho has helped a lot as well,” Terry added with a slight smile, amusement shining in his eyes.

“Cedric was the main one to try to persuade Hufflepuff,” Justin informed the group.

“Must have worked well,” Blaise observed, and the Hufflepuffs nodded.

“I’ve got a question,” Natalie suddenly said, and everyone turned to her, but she was looking Harry in the eyes. “For someone so into uniting the Houses, you’re not trying to unite the older Slytherins with the rest that hard.”

The Slytherins all shared looks, trying to decide who would explain, or at least begin the explanation that the others, or at least Natalie, needed.

“The older Slytherins need… incentive,” Daphne began slowly. “Otherwise, they won’t change their ways.”

“Incentive?” Hannah asked as Hermione looked on in understanding, the only one to have figured it out, Harry thought.

“The Slytherins don’t have a reason to change their ways,” Theo explained. “Without something to give them all the final push, none of the Slytherins will leave the shadows.”

All of the non-Slytherins looked confused at that, and Harry realized then and there that the politics of Slytherin really weren’t known outside of the House except to possibly the teachers. It was a bit surprising given the fact that the other Houses hung out with Slytherins more, but it also made sense as those that intermixed with others were the ones who had stopped playing the politics so much.

“Slytherin is a very political House,” Blaise began. All of the Slytherins with serious faces that seemed to be worrying the others, even Ginny, who was gripping Harry’s arm more tightly than normal. “I’m not sure what you see when you look at Slytherin, but it’s probably very different than it actually is once the first years get to around Christmas.”

“What do you mean?” Hermione asked, looking interested alongside her worry.

“Slytherin is in three groups right now,” Maya said. “You have our group, the ones uniting the Houses and a lot more light. Then there are the darker thinkers, the ones who believe in what the Dark Lord said and did; Draco pretends to be one of these, his friends are among this group, and the rest are mostly the seventh years. Everyone else would be in the third group: the neutrals.”

“The neutrals are more split in two with their opinions,” Graham said gravely, and Harry felt a pang of sorrow as he listened to the eleven-year-old.

Before Hogwarts, he had been a mature, playful kid; now he was a mature kid who still had fun here and there with mainly Natalie but was mostly just serious and playing with his mask. It was terrible what growing up as a Pureblood did to the kids, making them more mature than they should be, making them realize things than they normally would have. Being in Slytherin made them grow up even more, taking away all but a few threads of their childhood for good.

“Most agree with our group while the rest are leaning towards our view but mainly don’t care. None of them have a reason to join the group, and they don’t want to anger the few seventh years that will actually do something to them,” Graham stated, ignoring the slightly shocked looks from those not in Slytherin, obviously unable to believe that he actually knew and understood this.

“If someone gives them that final push, I’m pretty sure they’ll all come to our side, but without that final push…” Harry finished with a sad shrug.

“Personally, while I’m hoping for that push, I really don’t want to be here when they get it,” Astoria stated. “The only sort of thing that will get that reaction from them will affect all of us negatively, not just them.”

“Then we should hope that they’ll come around without a push that affects us all,” Neville said quietly, and everyone agreed.

In the minds of every Slytherin, however, they all knew that nothing but something monumental would get them to choose a side.

…

“Potter!” Snape suddenly called out in Potions, surprising everyone, though none more than Harry. Snape didn’t usually call on Harry for anything, so this had to be important. Usually Harry would be called down to the dungeons and into his office after class.

“Yes, sir?” he asked, looking up curiously, realizing then that Snape had been waiting for his hands to be empty and his potion simmering before calling on him.

“The Headmaster has asked me to inform you that the Quidditch Pitch will be close from the first of May until the end of the school year, so your Unofficial Quidditch Tournament must be done by then.” In two weeks, then; just enough time to plan the final match against Durmstrang.

“Thank you, sir,” Harry replied over the quiet complaints of both the Gryffindors and the Slytherins. He was among the few to understand that it wasn’t Snape’s fault; the professor was only the messenger, and this meant that Harry didn’t have to inform his friends as they had heard it first-hand.

It wasn’t until Harry had led all of the fourth years from his class away from the Potions lab, but kept them in the dungeons, that he spoke to them.

“Don’t blame Snape, you guys,” he said, looking more at the Gryffindors than the Slytherins. “He’s only Dumbledore’s messenger. Besides, we’ve known for weeks that this could be ended at any time. Now that it’s ending, think about the final match and how much fun we’ve had these past couple of months, not that it’s ending.”

“He’s right,” Dean admitted as everyone shared looks. “It _has_ been fun getting to play as a Chaser on the second Gryffindor team. Plus, watching him play against Krum is going to be a really good match.”

“We’ve got people to tell, anyway,” Draco added. “The rest of the players on all of the teams.”

“I’ll let Viktor and Fleur know so they can pass it on to their schools,” Harry suggested, and everyone nodded, the Quidditch players going off to find the people they had to let know and the rest to actually eat lunch.

…

“So ve vill get to play the Saturday after this one?” Viktor asked, and Harry nodded with a grin that the older teen shared.

“This is going to be great,” Harry said, his excitement slipping into his voice. “We only got to play that one time, so this is going to really show what we can do, since there will be other players on the Pitch with us.”

“I vunder vhich of us vill vin,” Viktor mused as Cedric walked over to where the two Seekers were standing just outside of the Great Hall.

“I’m willing to bet on Harry, but only because I’m hoping for a Hogwarts team to win,” the Hufflepuff said to Harry’s amusement.

“How many people do you think will place a bet on the match with Fred and George?” Harry asked with a mischievous grin.

“Most of the school,” Cedric replied. “Why?”

“Because either Viktor or I could claim part of the money depending upon who wins if we talk to the twins now,” Harry stated. Viktor looked interested.

“Vhy doesn’t the loser get the gold and the vinner the Snitch and glory?” he suggested, holding out a hand to Harry.

“Deal,” Harry replied, gripping the hand tightly and shaking it.

…

“One-third of the money will go to us,” Harry told the twins as the three Champions sat at a table with them and discussed the deal. “We’ll do what we want with it. I’d suggest you two make it known that you’ll keep another third of the money. The rest will go to the winners.”

“Good, but we were planning on adding a second part to the bet,” Fred said.

“The person has to know how large the gap between the teams will be point-wise,” George added.

“So if no one gets it, vho vill get the money?” Viktor asked.

“We’ll split it half-and-half with the two of you,” the twins said together after sharing a long look.

“Deal,” Harry and Viktor said without thinking long about it, shaking a hand each before switching twins.


	26. Chapter Twenty-Six

“That was an amazing match yesterday, you two,” Cedric commented, and Harry and Viktor shared grins.

It had been a good match, but Slytherin obvious had the better Chasers and Keeper, so they had pulled ahead quickly, getting a good lead over Durmstrang. When it finally came down to the Seekers, Viktor had seen the Snitch first as it was close to Harry and he had been checking on his opposing Seeker. Harry heard Viktor, turned, saw the Snitch, and tore after it, the closer of the two. In the end, Harry got the Snitch, but Viktor had almost grabbed it. The score had been Three hundred- fifty to ninety.  
  
“It vas fun,” Viktor said. He had gotten half the winnings as no one had suspected a match with so large of a gap.  
  
“Well, ze Tournament eez next,” Fleur commented, her face blank but her eyes full of worry.  
  
“Three weeks, and then we’ve got a month to prepare,” Harry sighed, flopping down onto the couch so that the others would take a seat.  
  
“I just want it to be over,” Cedric groaned as the other three sat down.  
  
“You want it to be over?” Harry asked in a bit of disbelief. “At least you got to choose to be in this thing!” He covered his eyes with his hands and leaned his head against the back of the couch.  
  
“I still zink zat was not fair,” Fleur said softly, and movement from where the other two Champions were sitting told Harry that they agreed.  
  
“You did not enter, you are not old enough, yet they make you compete,” Viktor said. “It is not fair on any us of, least of all you, Harry.”  
  
“Not much we can do about it,” Harry stated without uncovering his eyes.  
  
“Besides, Harry is winning, so he might as well go all the way to the end so that the winner can claim he or she beat him,” Cedric finished with a grin that Harry matched as he looked at the Hufflepuff.  
  
“Let us just vait and see vhat the Task is,” Viktor decided. “Then ve can decide vhat ve shall do.”  
  
“Until ze Task is known, zen,” Fleur agreed.  
  
Harry grinned internally as he heard what they were saying. It seemed the idea of helping one another, even for the Final Task, was one they were all interested in. In his mind, it showed that he had succeeded at what the Hat had said to do at the beginning of the year.  
  
_Uniting more than just the Houses/Should be the school’s new quest,/For with new people at the school,/Why not unite the rest?_  
  
Indeed, they had done that and done it well, in Harry’s opinion.

…

“These past three weeks have gone by so fast,” Harry sighed as he and Cedric walked out to the Quidditch Pitch together  
  
“I agree,” Cedric said. “It feels like maybe a few days, not three full weeks. I’m willing to bet the time leading up to the Task will just zoom by.”  
  
“Probably,” Harry admitted, “but we can make fun of our friends because they’re revising for exams while we’re just preparing for the Task. We won’t have to sit in a classroom answering questions for two weeks.”  
  
“Very true,” Cedric said, his eyes lighting up and a smile growing on his lips. “They’ve been annoying me about the Task, but I can annoy them about their exams! What've they done to it?”  
  
Both boys stopped dead as they got to the entrance of the Quidditch stadium, staring at it in shock. The pitch was no longer smooth and flat. It looked as though somebody had been building long, low walls all over it that twisted and crisscrossed in every direction.  
  
"They're hedges!" Harry said, bending to examine the nearest one.  
  
"Hello there!" a cheery voice called.  
  
Ludo Bagman was standing in the middle of the field with Viktor and Fleur. Harry and Cedric made their way toward them, climbing over the hedges. Fleur and Viktor were looking around with a bit of worry and curiosity while Bagman was grinning. It seemed their fellow Champions had more sense than the judge.  
  
"Well, what d'you think?" Bagman said happily as Harry and Cedric climbed over the last hedge. "Growing nicely, aren't they? Give them a month and Hagrid'll have them twenty feet high. Don't worry," he added, grinning, spotting the less-than-happy expressions on Harry and Cedric's faces, "you'll have your pitch back to normal once the task is over! Now, I imagine you can guess what we're making here?"  
  
Harry looked around at the hedges, trying to figure out what they may be. They didn’t seem to have much of a pattern, yet they also seemed to be placed for a specific reason. Just as an idea began to work its way into Harry’s mind, Viktor spoke up.  
  
“Maze,” he said, and Harry realized once he said it that the hedges were, indeed, the beginning of a maze.  
  
"That's right!" Bagman said. "A maze. The Third Task's really very straightforward. The Triwizard Cup will be placed in the center of the maze. The first champion to touch it will receive full marks."  
  
"We simply 'ave to get through the maze?" Fleur asked skeptically.  
  
"There will be obstacles," Bagman said happily, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Hagrid is providing a number of creatures… then there will be spells that must be broken… all that sort of thing, you know. Now, the Champion who is leading on points will get a head start into the maze." Bagman grinned at Harry. "Then Mr. Diggory will enter… followed by Mr. Krum… then Miss Delacour. But you'll all be in with a fighting chance, depending how well you get past the obstacles. Should be fun, eh?"  
  
Harry, who knew only too well the kind of creatures that Hagrid was likely to provide for an event like this, thought it was unlikely to be any fun at all. However, he nodded politely like the other champions. It seemed they all realized Bagman just didn’t have any idea how hard this was going to be, so they just didn’t bother arguing.  
  
"Very well… if you haven't got any questions, we'll go back up to the castle, shall we, it's a bit chilly…"  
  
All of the Champions wove their way out of the growing maze, Bagman trying to talk to Harry, who was ignoring him. When they were all out, they all told Bagman that they’d find their own ways back to their rooms for the night, and he left them just outside the Pitch.  
  
“A maze,” Fleur finally said after a few moments of silence. “We ‘ave to get through a maze.”  
  
“You need to take this seriously,” Harry stated as Fleur and Viktor looked as if the maze wouldn’t be hard, Cedric nodding in agreement. “Anything Hagrid puts in there will be dangerous, very dangerous. Then imagine what the professors will add in charm-wise. No, we have to be at our best when the maze starts, ready for anything.”  
  
“I agree with Harry,” Cedric added. “You have _no idea_ what sort of creatures Hagrid has access to and will be willing to put into that thing.” He added quietly, “All we can hope for is that he leaves the Blast-Ended Skrewts out of it…” However, Harry heard him and shuddered, imagining running into the creature that had been the focus for half his Care of Magical Creatures class this year.  
  
“Very vell, I vill be careful about this,” Viktor said, obviously taking in the looks Harry and Cedric were wearing and realizing how serious they were. Fleur also looked as if she understood their looks, which relieved Harry quite a bit as he didn’t want them unprepared.  
  
“I’ll see you all in The Den tomorrow?” Harry asked, and the other three nodded as they separated, Viktor to his ship, Fleur to her carriage, and Cedric and Harry to the castle.

…

“A maze?” Blaise asked with a raised eyebrow as they all sat in the Slytherin Common Room. Harry had just finished telling them about the Task.  
  
“We’ll have to look up charms that will help make sure you don’t get lost and can choose the correct forks in the maze,” Daphne mused, her mind obviously whirling.  
  
“That’s useful and all, but how is he supposed to get past the creatures Hagrid will put in the maze?!” Theo exclaimed.  
  
“You ask him what he’s planning to put in there, of course,” Astoria said with an innocent smile on her face, which was offset by the mischievous look they could all see in her eyes.  
  
“And how do we do that so that we’ll get an actual answer?” Daphne asked her sister in amusement, obviously not realizing that Astoria was dead serious like Harry had.  
  
“We let Astoria go in and play her little innocent act that you’re falling for right now, Daphe,” Harry said in amusement, a bit surprised that Daphne hadn’t spotted it on her own sister. “Within an hour she’ll have information on it, knowing her.” Astoria grinned at him happily and with a bit of pride.  
  
“I’ll have it by dinner tomorrow,” she promised, and Harry knew she would even as Daphne looked at the third year in disbelief.

…

“Professor?” Harry asked, knocking on the open door to Professor Snape’s office cautiously as the man was grading papers, looking a bit annoyed.  
  
“Yes, Potter?” Snape asked without even looking up, though he did put the quill down and rub his eyes in frustration.  
  
“I was wondering if anyone is even going to be able to see into the maze for the Third Task,” Harry said, and Snape looked up, looking a bit surprised. “I mean, my friends told me they just sat there for the entire Second Task, so I was wondering if it was going to be a repeat of that.”  
  
“From what the Headmaster has told me, it will be a repeat, though those watching will be able to see spells and possibly hear loud noises,” Snape admitted, pushing the papers to the side so that he could put his elbows on the desk and look at Harry more closely. “Why?”  
  
“I was thinking that I may have an idea around that,” Harry admitted with a grin. “A way for someone to tell everyone what’s going on in the maze to each Champion without you all having to do something to make use visible.”  
  
“Explain,” Snape stated, looking interested but also annoyed by Harry’s wording.  
  
“You’ll see once I talk with Tracey and see if we can make it,” Harry said with a widening grin. “By the way,” Harry continued before Snape could comment again, “can we Champions bring anything besides our wands into the maze with us?”  
  
“What do you mean by that, Potter?” Snape snapped, and Harry knew he had annoyed the professor.  
  
“Can I wear dragonhide armor into the maze?” Harry asked bluntly, and Snape looked shocked for a moment before one side of his mouth twitched.  
  
“Thinking ahead, Potter?” he asked more calmly, and Harry knew his thoughtfulness had earned him some points with the Slytherin.  
  
“Of course, Professor,” Harry replied. “So, can I?”  
  
“There is nothing in the rules about only bringing your wand in with you for the Third Task, only the first.”  
  
“Excellent,” Harry said in a low tone that almost sounded like a hiss, rubbing his hands together. “Thank you very much, Professor. I’ll come to you if I have any more questions.”  
  
Harry swore he could hear Snape muttering under his breath as Harry left the office, closing the door behind him this time.

…

“Are you sure about this, Harry?” Sirius asked through the mirror, and Harry sighed but nodded.  
  
“Yes, Padfoot, I’m sure about this,” Harry groaned. “Just go and talk to one of them. I’ll do the rest from here.”  
  
“Very well,” Sirius said, moving his mirror so that Harry could only see the marble floor of Gringotts.  
  
“Yes?” a voice asked, and Harry recognized it as the goblin Griphook, the goblin who had taken him to his Trust Vault his first time in Diagon Alley.  
  
“I’m here under the request of Mr. Harry Potter to access his Family Storage Vault to retrieve something for him as he’s still in school and cannot go himself,” Sirius’ voice said through the mirror. “I’m Sirius Black, his godfather.”  
  
“Is there a way to prove that Mr. Potter has requested this?” Griphook asked.  
  
The mirror’s image suddenly moved, and Harry was able to see the face of Griphook in the mirror, the bank in the background. Griphook looked surprised for a moment, but he quickly gathered himself and spoke to Harry instead of Sirius.  
  
“Mr. Potter?” he asked, and Harry nodded, raising his fringe to show the scar on his forehead as it was an easy way to identify himself. “How can I be sure that this isn’t something that was prerecorded or something you’ve been forced to do?”  
  
“Well, I’ll show you my surroundings so that you know I’m not being forced,” Harry said, beginning to slowly move the mirror around him to show that he was sitting in his empty dormitory. When it was facing him again, he spoke, “As for it being prerecorded, ask a question that you don’t think would be expected, and I’ll answer it the best I can.”  
  
“Very well,” Griphook said, “do you know who I am, and if you do, where do you know me from?”  
  
“You’re Griphook, the goblin who took me to my Trust Vault the first time I was ever at Gringotts on my eleventh birthday,” Harry said immediately, and Griphook grinned, something that was very scary on a goblin.  
  
“I’m surprised you remember me,” he said, and Harry grinned, knowing that Sirius could get in now. “Do you give Mr. Black access to your Vault?”  
  
“Yes,” Harry said. “He’s retrieving me some dragonhide armor from it, if you’re wondering and want to be sure he’s only getting what I’ve asked for.”  
  
“Thank you, Mr. Potter, I’ll take him myself,” Griphook said, nodding his head at both Harry and Sirius.  
  
“I’ll send you the armor as soon as I get home, Pup,” Sirius said as he turned the mirror back to face him, and Harry grinned.  
  
“Just remember to pass on my message to Samuel, okay, Padfoot? If he asks to use the mirror to discuss it with Tracey and me, let him.”  
  
“Got it, Pup,” Sirius said. “Take care, practice for the Task, and I’ll talk to you soon.”

…

“The leather cord is a good thing to test it on,” Harry admitted as Tracey showed it to him. “It means we can mess it up and just get a new cord without having to figure out how to cancel the spells.”  
  
“Exactly,” Tracey said triumphantly. “Plus, if we get it right, we can put it on chains and such if any of you would rather it.”  
  
“True,” Harry grinned. “Plus, if we do this properly, there might be a way we can eventually adapt this to do something with the Journals and it. Maybe a place to keep them safely?”  
  
“If we ever have a reason to use it like this, we’ll remember it,” Tracey stated, pulling out the first of many leather cords while Harry held out a scroll of parchment charmed to never run out, a large pile of them next to him on his couch.  
  
“We’d best get started,” they said together, laughing slightly. Between them, Harry’s mirror sat, just in case they needed to call Tracey’s father for ideas or help.

…

“You and Tracey had an idea that you worked together to make all day yesterday?” Cedric asked the first Monday afternoon after finding out about the Third Task almost a week before, all four Champions sitting in a circle in The Den, Tracey with them.  
  
“Pretty much,” Harry said with a nod.  
  
“Vell, vhat is the idea?” Viktor asked curiously.  
  
“Remember how no one watching the Second Task could see what we were doing, so they were pretty much just waiting around, bored?” Harry asked, and all three nodded, remembering their friends complaining about it.  
  
“Well, Harry had an idea that has to do with the Journals you both have seen around this room a lot,” Tracey said, nodding towards Viktor and Fleur, who had seen the Journals about a week after the Goblet of Fire had chosen them. “What if the two of us could charm a piece of parchment and another object so that any spoken word was written down on the parchment, one for each of you?”  
  
“Then, we’d each have someone commentating depending upon who was doing what,” Harry continued, taking over flawlessly. “I could have a Slytherin reading for me, Cedric a Hufflepuff, Fleur a Ravenclaw, and Viktor a Gryffindor. Plus, if we did it properly, you both could have someone translating what was being said into your native languages. I’ve got a feeling there will be family members there for the Task.”  
  
“That’s an interesting idea,” Cedric admitted as Viktor and Fleur looked a bit surprised that Harry had thought to include someone translating for those native to other countries.  
  
“What are you zinking of?” Fleur asked.  
  
“Charming a necklace that you each wear,” Tracey said as Harry held up the leather cord. “Anything said within two hundred feet of the thing is sent to the scroll that it’s charmed to.”  
  
Harry then unrolled a scroll to show that the charmed necklace had picked up the entire conversation.  
  
“Of course, it only picks it up if it’s touching human skin,” Harry added, leaving the leather cord on his leg and showing how it didn’t pick up on the words now that he wasn’t touching it.  
  
“Can you do that to something other than the leather?” Cedric asked, and the Slytherins nodded with a grin.  
  
“Chains of any sort, even a bracelet,” Tracey informed them with a bit of pride in her voice.  
  
“Ve vill have to show the judges this, no?” Viktor asked with a small smile, and Harry knew that the others approved of the idea and were willing to go through with it.  
  
“I’ll bring it up with the Headmaster and have him gather the people who need to see it in action,” Harry said. “Also, I was thinking Susan Bones from Hufflepuff, Graham Pritchard from Slytherin, Demelza Robins from Gryffindor, and Bradley Martin from Ravenclaw for the commentary. Viktor, Fleur, you both can choose someone to work alongside them to comment in your native languages, okay?”  
  
“Works for us,” Cedric said for the three, and Harry grinned.

…

Harry gave Fleur the thin, silver chain she had provided for the charms. Tracey handed Cedric and Viktor thick, brass chains while Harry’s gold chain with his parents’ rings on it was already charmed. The charms on the scrolls hadn’t been activated yet, but they would have to be for the Task that would begin in a few minutes.  
  
In the room, the four people Harry had suggested, Fleur’s friend Aimee , and Viktor’s friend Andon were all talking and hanging out, waiting to see how the scrolls would work exactly. All six had agreed to commentate for the Third Task when they had been asked.  
  
Finally, Dumbledore, Karkaroff, Maxime, Bagman, and the Minister of Magic himself, Cornelius Fudge, walked into Dumbledore’s office, Professors Snape and McGonagall following. Most of them looked indifferent, but Harry saw the interest on Snape and McGonagall’s faces. Even Dumbledore’s eyes were sparkling a bit more than normal.  
  
“Why have I been dragged here in the middle of a work day?” Fudge demanded, and Harry tried not to roll his eyes.  
  
“These lovely students have something they wish to show to us,” Dumbledore said calmly, waving his hand in the group’s direction. “Supposedly it will help with the Third Task.”  
  
“Very well, get on with it,” Fudge said impatiently.  
  
“If you want me to get straight to the point, then I’ll just get to it,” Harry said, feeling annoyed. “These chains the four of us are wearing will pick up anything said within a two hundred foot distance from them as long as they’re touching human skin. A charm connects them to a piece of endless parchment, which will immediately write down what is said.  
  
“The idea is that we wear these in the mazes and these six people will commentate on what they read from the parchment, Andon and Aimee in their native languages to make it easier on those from other countries. It will mean that those watching won’t be bored during the Task like they were while the four of us were in the lake.”  
  
“Do these actually work, Potter?” Snape demanded, and Harry recognized the admiration of the spellwork involved in making these in his voice.  
  
“Of course,” Tracey said, sounding a little insulted. “We’ve even got the parchment with us.” She pulled out four scrolls, each labeled on the outside with the name of a Champion so that they wouldn’t get mixed up. “Would you like to test them?”  
  
“Please,” Dumbledore requested with a grandfatherly smile, or at least in Harry’s opinion.  
  
Harry and Tracey took out their wands, touched a scroll each, and muttered the spell to activate them, moving onto the other two quickly as the first pair glowed a light red momentarily. Then, they handed the scrolls to the six who would be reading from them, and everyone crowded around them.  
  
“You have to talk for them to work,” Harry said in amusement, knowing it would show up on all four scrolls.  
  
“Can you prove to us that this doesn’t just have to do with you being in the same area as the scrolls?” Karkaroff asked skeptically, and Harry grinned.  
  
“Send us anywhere in the castle. I’m sure we won’t mind the chance to practice describing what we see as we walk,” Harry said, and the other three nodded.  
  
“Very well, Potter, go up to The Den,” Snape ordered. “Ms. Davis can go with you so that we can see that they pick up other voices as well. Diggory, to your Common Room.”  
  
“Fleur, please go to ze carriage,” Madam Maxime requested, and Fleur nodded.  
  
“Viktor, can you go back to the ship?” Karkaroff asked, and Viktor didn’t do anything but turn to leave the room. The other three followed.  
  
As they separated, Harry and Tracey began talking.  
  
“Think they’ll use these?” Tracey asked.  
  
“If they don’t it’s only because they’re ashamed they didn’t think of them themselves,” Harry replied. “Oh, we just passed the stairway that goes to the Ravenclaw Common Room and are headed to the stairs towards the third floor,” he added for the sake of those reading the scrolls.  
  
“I hope there aren’t too many people in The Den,” Tracey suddenly said. “It might overload the scroll having so much to write.”  
  
“It won’t overload it, but they won’t be able to keep up,” Harry laughed, and Tracey had to laugh in agreement. “The Den is pretty empty. It must be because it’s class time for most students.”  
  
“Harry!” Daphne suddenly called, and Harry and Tracey looked over to see that she and Draco were in The Den for their free period because of Arithmancy. “I thought you two were with the professors, showing off the necklaces you made.”  
  
“They wanted proof that they worked,” Harry laughed, gesturing to the chain around his neck while using the other hand to make sure Draco knew to be quiet. The blond nodded in understanding and said nothing.  
  
“All of you are going on walks around the school, then?” Daphne asked, and the pair nodded in amusement. “Well, shouldn’t you be getting back?”  
  
“Probably,” Tracey sighed. “We’ll see you at dinner.”  
  
The pair returned to Dumbledore’s office quickly, and they found the others had had the same idea as Cedric returned just after them; the other two were already there.  
  
“Is that good enough for you?” Harry asked, and the adults all nodded. “So, shall we use this for the Task?”  
  
“Very well,” Dumbledore said. “It seems to be effective, so we’ll ask that you wear these on the evening of the Task so that your friends here may commentate.”  
  
Once that was agreed, the Champions and other students left the office, Harry and Tracey deactivating the charm on the scrolls and putting them away, disappearing to go find dinner.


	27. Chapter Twenty-Seven

Harry turned to the left, immediately dodging the spell sent down the narrow path he was on by ducking once he saw the red light headed towards him. A hiss of disappointment reached Harry’s sensitive ears as he raced forward as fast as he could before another spell could be cast.

Instead of a spell, though, a bear charged forward. Startled, but not letting it get to him, Harry used a muttered spell to wrap the bear up in ropes, smirking at the growls it made in annoyance.  
  
Chuckling almost silently, Harry ran past the bear and further down the path, took a sudden step back at a fork in the path when a blue spell went flying down at him. Muttering “ _Protego_ ” under his breath, Harry made a shield in front of himself as he stepped out and saw another blue light shoot at him from his left. It hit the shield hard, though not enough to crack it.  
  
Cursing slightly as he recognized the spell, Harry backed away again to use the Point-Me spell Hermione had found for him to figure out which way he had to go. Unfortunately, the spell told him what he had already known but didn’t want to accept: The way to the center was past the person launching spells at him.  
  
Creating another shield, Harry ran towards the person quickly, allowing his shield to take the brunt of the attack while also moving left and right in the path, even ducking down once when his shield fell and he had to bring up a new one, but a spell flew over his head in those precious moments.  
  
Finally, Harry moved close enough to see Tracey firing at him still. Preparing himself, Harry ducked down and to the right, launching three Stunners in a row. Tracey dodged the first two, but the final one had been sent a few moments later at the spot Harry knew she would be at and hit her.  
  
Kicking her wand away as he ran, Harry continued on the path he was taking, a sudden curse slipping out of his lips as a metal dart came out of nowhere from above and in front of him at an angle, giving him just enough time to dodge it.  
  
“Bloody hell, which of my crazy friends was in charge of setting this up?” Harry muttered under his breath, unable to believe what they had thrown at him.  
  
Jumping over a thin string lying across the ground in his path, Harry realized that the increase in traps must mean their idea of the finish was close now, much to his relief. This was the third time in one day his maniac friends had made him run through a maze with some of his friends in it as obstacles along with the other traps someone had set up while asking for the Room.  
  
A knife being thrown at him warned Harry that he had another opponent. He dodged, quite used to it as training for almost two years had included lots of throwing knives aimed at him in annoyance.  
  
A flash of red told Harry that it was Ginny’s turn again. Usually, the last obstacle before the end was either Ginny or Astoria, so Harry knew that while he couldn’t relax completely, he was almost to the point where he could get a break and collapse for a bit.  
  
Unfortunately, Ginny had not only her wand but also a sheath of throwing knives. Was that her sword on her back that Harry saw? _Oh great_ , he thought sarcastically, _she’s going to even use her sword on me._  
  
Preparing himself, Harry raised his wand arm and prepared to cast while still moving forward, his left hand going down to a special sheath in his dragonhide armor that he knew not to depend on at all as it was only there in case of an emergency. Very few of his obstacles warranted his dagger, but this was one of them.  
  
As the knives began flying from Ginny’s end of the path, Harry pulled out his dagger and used it to deflect a couple knives he knew he wouldn’t be able to dodge, his wand sending Stunners right at her whenever he could launch them.  
  
Slowly, Harry made his way towards his girlfriend, though not even that made him go easy on her as he tried to take her out again.  
  
Finally, finally, he caught a lucky break as Ginny’s shield wavered at the exact moment a Stunner was aimed at her and her attention was a bit distracted by getting another knife. By the time she noticed it, the Stunner had gotten through and there was no time to move as the red light hit her and knocked her unconscious, allowing Harry to finally pass by her.  
  
Racing by, Harry hurried into the clearing where the fake Triwizard Cup sat, touching it with a single finger before collapsing. The maze disappeared from around him, the Room turning into the normal training room they used.  
  
“I think he’ll be ready for the Task in two weeks,” the voice of Daphne said from above Harry as he panted and couldn’t look up from the ground. “How about you guys?”  
  
All around Harry, sounds of agreement were heard, and he grinned around trying to regain his breath. Hearing that meant they were done, which was good as he was _knackered._  
  
Of course, his friends wouldn’t be able to help him train during the week anymore as their exams started the next day, unfortunately, but he would be able to look up spells if he wanted to, or he could ask for permission to just not be in the room while they took the exam and come to the Room of Requirement and train.  
  
“Come on, let’s get the Champion some water and a chance to relax for a bit,” Theo said with a laugh as Tracey and Ginny suddenly bent down next to Harry to help him stand up. They had sympathetic but proud looks on their faces, but Harry just wanted to sit down.  
  
Finally, ten minutes later, Harry had a bit more energy and was watching as his friends practiced around the room.  
  
“You okay?” Ginny asked from beside him, and Harry nodded as he turned to grin at her. “Good. By the way, I’m glad you didn’t go easy on me at all. It means you’re taking this seriously.”  
  
“Of course I am!” Harry exclaimed quietly, a bit upset that she thought he wouldn’t take it seriously.  
  
“Most were betting you’d go easy on me because it was me,” she said quietly, gesturing around with only her eyes at the others.  
  
“Idiots,” he muttered fondly. “You’d hex me into next week if I had gone easy on you.”  
  
“At least you know it,” she said with a grin, leaning up to kiss him lightly before resting her head on his shoulder. Harry wrapped his arm around his girlfriend.  
  
They both just watched their friends, knowing that the third and final Task was looming in front of them, but they were preparing Harry as best as they could, so it was easier just to enjoy themselves as best they could.

…

“Someone curse me or something, _please_ ,” Theo begged as he threw himself onto a couch in The Den, taking up the entire thing. “Just get me into the Hospital Wing so that I don’t have to do this anymore!”  
  
Harry looked up in surprise as his friends settled down around him. The time had flown quickly as he went through one of the textbooks from Remus that he had received when he asked for a few advanced Defense books. He hadn’t even noticed it when the Charms exam had ended for his friends.  
  
“I’m amazed you’d be willing to spend time with Madam Pomfrey,” he commented, putting a small slip of parchment into the book and closing it as Theo paled a bit.  
  
“You’re right,” he admitted. “I’m not sure which is worse, Madam Pomfrey or the exams,” he groaned, covering his eyes with his hands.  
  
“Madam Pomfrey,” Harry immediately answered.  
  
“You’re only saying that because you don’t have to take the exams!” Blaise exclaimed, and Harry knew that his other friend wanted out of the exams just as badly as Theo.  
  
“Trust me, I’ve been in there more than you two have from Quidditch injuries,” Harry stated. “She’s ten times worse than even McGonagall’s class when she’s in a bad mood. Heck, she’s worse than Moody’s class when he decides to go after everyone in our class.”  
  
Theo was truly pale by the end of Harry’s comparisons, and Blaise wasn’t far behind him. The pair had been lucky enough to escape any major injuries during practice or matches, so they hadn’t faced the full wrath of the medi-witch.  
  
“Stop scaring them,” Tracey said, whacking Harry upside the head lightly as she stood up to go sit next to Theo, who sat up quickly when he saw her.  
  
“I’m not trying to!” Harry complained. “All I’m doing is making sure they don’t end up in the hospital wing just so they can get away from their exams; they’ll regret it in more ways than one.”  
  
“You don’t have to scare them to do it,” Tracey retorted, and Harry just rolled his eyes.  
  
“Enough you four,” Daphne finally sighed. “The exams are a pain, but they aren’t terrible enough to warrant a trip to the Hospital Wing to get away from them. Just stop with the drama because we’ve got more studying to do for Herbology tomorrow.”  
  
Theo groaned, but got his textbook out as Harry smirked at his friend. He opened the Defense book pointedly, trying to annoy Theo by showing off the fact that he didn’t have to take exams. Though, in a part of his mind, Harry knew that the maze wasn’t exactly the perfect trade-off for it.  
  
A light whack upside the head before a kiss told Harry that Ginny had joined them, her Astronomy exam done as she sat down and pulled out her Defense book, obviously ready to ask Harry questions if she needed to.  
  
Grinning, Harry relaxed and continued his reading to gather more possible spells to practice on his own.

…

“Why are we doing this again?” Daphne groaned as she, Astoria, Harry, Tracey, and Ginny continued their search of the Room of Hidden Things. They had been doing this periodically throughout the school year after the idea had hit them.  
  
“Because it’s better than revising or practicing,” Harry suggested, “but if we aren’t doing those we might as well be doing something productive.”  
  
“True,” she sighed, continuing to look through the piles for anything that might be a Horcrux.  
  
Harry had just spotted a large cupboard that looked as if acid had been thrown on it, if the blistered surface meant anything and walked right up to it, a curious look on his face. Something just seemed to be drawing him to this area, though he wasn’t sure what it was.  
  
Turning to his right a bit, Harry spotted an odd, ugly chipped bust of an old warlock on top of a crate. On the crate next to it were an old wig and a tarnished tiara. The tiara looked very ancient and was oddly discolored, but something seemed to be drawing Harry towards it despite his confusion about the feeling.  
  
Reaching out, Harry picked up the tiara, feeling as if his soul was shivering, and he turned it around. He was able to read something on it: WIT BEYOND MEASURE IS MAN’S GREATEST TREASURE.  
  
Blinking, Harry thought back to what he had seen the one time he and his friends had been alone in Ravenclaw Tower a few months ago. He had decided to use that as a chance to study the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw despite the odd looks the others had given him at the time. On the back of the tiara — a diadem, Luna had called it at the time — had been that exact same sentence.  
  
“GUYS!” he called loudly, attracting the attention of the others. “I THINK I FOUND IT!”  
  
At those words, the other four charged towards him. Within moments they were surrounding him, looking at the diadem in his hands.  
  
“Are you sure?” Daphne demanded, but Harry wasn’t upset as he understood where she was coming from.  
  
“This is Rowena Ravenclaw’s lost diadem,” Harry informed them with a grin, lifting it up a little. “Luna told me the story one time when I was in their Common Room earlier this year. I’m not sure how Riddle got it, but we’ve got it now.”  
  
“Are you going to destroy it?” Astoria asked in a slightly awed voice, obviously amazed that they had found it. Harry himself was actually amazed they had found it.  
  
“Soon,” Harry said, taking the diadem and slipping it into his bag. “I don’t have the special thing I use to destroy the Horcruxes with me.” Harry made sure to keep his face blank as he told the lie; the Dagger was in its normal place on his left arm.  
  
“So we can’t watch you destroy it?” Astoria sighed. She and the others looked a bit upset by the fact, but Harry knew it was better this way. He couldn’t have Daphne or Astoria knowing about the Dagger.  
  
“Sorry, Astoria,” he said, and she nodded sadly. “Well, come on; let’s go let some adults know that we’ve got it! Would you like the honors, Astoria?” Harry had grabbed his mirror from the holder on his belt and held it out to the younger girl, who was now grinning.  
  
As Harry watched Astoria tell Sirius, who had rushed to Floo the others to his home when he found out what she was saying, he couldn’t help but smile a little at the happiness on her face. No matter how dark the topics she was talking about were, Astoria was proud of what she was doing and was enjoying it.  
  
It was all that Harry could ask for.

…

Later that Saturday evening, Harry slipped away from his friends and went back up to the Room of Requirement, requesting the room he normally destroyed the Horcruxes in.  
  
Pulling the diadem from his bag, he placed it on the rock in the middle of the room and removed his Dagger from its sheathe. With a quick stab, Harry pierced the diadem straight through the front, a scream emitting from it, ringing in his ears.  
  
From his bag, Harry extracted the box that hid the magic within it. Placing the diadem inside the box, Harry wrote a quick note.  
  
_It’s done.  
  
Harry_  
  
Locking up the box, Harry replaced it in his bag and sheathed the Dagger, leaving the Room behind him as he headed to the Owlery to give Hedwig some exercise.  
  
Four down, two to go.

…

Harry saw Cedric and went over to him in The Den. The next day was the Third Task, and he knew they had to talk about this now, just in case.  
  
“Hey Cedric,” Harry said, settling down on the couch next to the seventh year, who grinned at him.  
  
“Hey Harry, what’s up?” he asked, putting down the Defense book he had been looking through.  
  
“Tomorrow,” Harry said, and Cedric got more serious. “We both know it’s dangerous, and with what Hagrid could be putting in that maze, it’ll be deadly.” Cedric nodded in understanding. “Well… I was thinking, and I had an idea. It’s sad and hard to think about, but we should.”  
  
“Tell me,” Cedric insisted, and Harry nodded, going into the idea he had and describing it the best he could. “Do it,” Cedric stated when Harry was done, reaching into his bag to give Harry what he needed. “It’s better to have it done just in case.”  
  
“I hope to Merlin, God, and whoever that we don’t need this, but…” Harry didn’t have to finish. Cedric understood.

…

Tracey entered the Great Hall next to Harry, who was hiding it well but was obviously quite nervous. She knew him better than anyone besides Ginny, and Tracey knew that nothing could have prepared him for this emotionally, even if Harry had the training for the maze.  
  
Looking around, Tracey realized that Harry wasn’t the only person in the Hall who was quite nervous. Cedric had friends actually rubbing his back to try and sooth him as he worried about the upcoming Task. Viktor was tense and completely silent, which Tracey had learned in the months that the foreigners had been there was quite odd for him when among friends. Fleur was snapping at her friends, but they seemed to be taking it well; maybe it was just her way of dealing with the tension and pressure being put on the Champions.  
  
It didn’t matter, though, because all four were worried and had nothing to distract them for the entire day as their friends were taking their exams.  
  
Frowning, Tracey thought that this hadn’t been well planned at all. It had only been the fact that all four Champions had had their friends before the Tasks that had allowed them to be less tense before, and now their friends were being taken away from them. She didn’t know a way around it, however, so all she could do was hope that this had been planned for.  
  
“Come on, Harry, you need to eat,” she told her almost-twin as they sat down and Harry pushed the empty plate away from him, obviously not planning to eat.  
  
“I’m not hungry,” he muttered, and Tracey frowned until she silently sighed in relief as Ginny walked up behind Harry. She was frowning. If Tracey couldn’t get him to eat, she still knew that Ginny could.  
  
“Eat, Harry,” Ginny muttered as she began massaging Harry’s shoulders, trying to get him to relax. “You’re going to need the energy this evening. Until then, think about something else.”  
  
“Like what?” he asked with a sigh as Tracey watched his muscles relax. With a small grin, Tracey began putting breakfast onto her own plate, listening to Ginny as she calmed down their friend.  
  
“Maybe how we’re going to celebrate your finishing the Tournament tomorrow out on the grounds,” Ginny whispered just loud enough for Tracey to hear. Ginny gave her a wicked grin that almost made Tracey choke on her pumpkin juice as she held in a laugh while putting the goblet down.  
  
From the grin on Harry’s face, that was a very nice thought, so Tracey began piling food on his plate and slid it back in front of him. He rolled his eyes, but picked up his fork and began to eat. Ginny sat down next to him.  
  
“Is he relaxed yet?” a voice whispered in Tracey’s ear, and she jumped slightly before turning with a slight scowl to tell Theo off for startling her again. “I know, I know, I’m not supposed to startle you like this, but I can’t help it,” he said with a grin while sitting down across from Ginny and next to Tracey.  
  
“Next time you do it I _will_ hex you,” Tracey muttered quietly to him, raising an eyebrow when he looked at her incredulously. “Remember the last time I hexed you because you did something too many times when I said not to?” Theo paled, and Tracey knew the message had been received.  
  
“What’s your last exam again, Trace?” Ginny suddenly asked, and Tracey looked over at the third year before replying.  
  
“Defense,” she sighed, putting a hand on Theo’s as he was reminded of their professor yet again. It had been a very tense class the entire year, and only she and Harry had managed to keep the entire class calm, sometimes helped by Blaise and Daphne when they could. “You?”  
  
“Herbology,” Ginny replied with a slight grimace.  
  
“Why didn’t you ask Neville to help you study for it?” Harry asked, and Ginny looked like she was going to hit herself for forgetting about the boy with the green thumb, as they usually called him jokingly to get his spirits up when he was down.  
  
“Completely slipped my mind that I could,” she groaned. “Oh well, too late for it now. I guess I’ll just do my best.” She shrugged indifferently, and Tracey grinned slightly.  
  
As breakfast began to wind down and students left the Hall to go get ready for another exam, Tracey glanced at Harry and saw his worry returning. She guessed that having his friends around him had helped, but now they were preparing to leave him alone for hours…  
  
“Mr. Potter,” the soft voice of Professor Snape said from behind Tracey. She spun around to see that he had almost silently walked up behind her. “The Champions are congregating in the chamber off the Hall.” Snape gestured in the direction of the same room Harry had been forced to enter when his name had come out of the Goblet of Fire.  
  
“Why, Professor?” Ginny asked, and Tracey turned around to see that she wasn’t the only one startled. “The Task is tonight, not this morning.”  
  
“That is true, Weasley, but the families are in there as they’ve been invited to watch the Final Task,” Snape stated, and Ginny looked a bit embarrassed, though Tracey thought she shouldn’t as the Slytherin had just been about to ask the same thing. “I just thought Mr. Potter here would like to greet them and spend the day with them.”  
  
When she heard that, Tracey relaxed. So they had thought of a way to distract the Champions while their friends were taking their exams. That was a good thing, in her opinion.  
  
“Thank you, Professor,” Harry said quietly, and Snape nodded once before stalking out of the Hall, obviously down to his dungeon for an exam.  
  
“Go, Harry,” Tracey said softly, grabbing her bag and standing up. “Let Padfoot and Moony distract you for a few hours until lunch when all of us can spend the afternoon with them.”  
  
She and Harry shared a grin as he nodded, agreeing to what she asked.  
  
Tracey held out a hand to Theo, who took it and began leading her from the Hall, Ginny behind them. The Slytherin took one last look at her almost-twin and knew that he would be fine if the look on his face said anything.

…

Harry entered the chamber and was surprised when Sirius pulled him into a hug. Grinning, Harry wrapped his arms tightly around his godfather.  
  
“Hey Sirius,” he said with a laugh as Sirius finally pulled away.  
  
“How are you doing?” Sirius asked, for once with a very serious look on his face, which Harry thought was so out of place that this couldn’t be his godfather.  
  
“Nervous,” he admitted, “but I’m fine.”  
  
“Padfoot, he’ll be fine,” Remus said, walking up and putting an arm briefly on Sirius’s shoulder before hugging Harry for a few moments. “At least let him come into the room properly.”  
  
“Sorry about that,” Sirius said, grinning sheepishly as he put an arm around Harry’s shoulder and moved him into the room.  
  
Harry blinked and then grinned when he saw Samuel and Daniella were also there. They might not be his guardians anymore, but they were definitely the pair who shared the part of his heart reserved for the different parental figures in his life along with Padfoot and Moony.  
  
“You came?” he asked as Daniella hugged him and Samuel gave him a one-armed hug.  
  
“Of course we did,” Samuel replied, sounding as if Harry was insane for thinking they wouldn’t be there. “Daniella actually came up here and told off Dumbledore when he tried to claim that we weren’t your family. Never seen anything as brilliant.” As he said it, Daniella blushed and all three men grinned.  
  
“I’m glad you did it, then,” Harry said with a smile. “Wouldn’t be the same without all four of you here.”  
  
“Well, come and introduce us to the other Champions!” Sirius exclaimed, and Harry grinned as he led the four over to where Cedric was talking with his parents.  
  
“Cedric, meet Sirius, Samuel, Daniella, and you probably remember Remus; guys, this is Cedric Diggory, my fellow Hogwarts Champion,” Harry said, and Cedric shook hands with all four of them.  
  
“Hey,” Cedric said with a smile. “These are my parents,” he said, gesturing behind him.  
  
“Hello Amos,” Samuel said, nodding at the man.  
  
“Samuel,” Amos Diggory replied with his own nod.  
  
“Samuel and Daniella are Tracey’s parents,” Harry added for Cedric’s benefit. He nodded in thanks as the confusion that had been on his face, though barely noticeable, disappeared.  
  
“She’s a wonderful girl,” Cedric mentioned, and the two smiled at him. “A very good friend.”  
  
“Zat she ez,” the voice of Fleur said from behind Harry, and he turned to see that she had brought her family over.  
  
“Fleur, I’d like you to meet my godfather Sirius, an ex-professor and family friend Remus, and Tracey’s parents Samuel and Daniella,” Harry said, gesturing to each as he said their names. “This is Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons Champion.  
  
“And this is Viktor Krum, the Durmstrang Champion,” Harry added as he noted that Viktor and his parents had joined the group while he had been introducing the four to Fleur and her family.  
  
The parents began talking as they introduced themselves, leaving the four Champions and Fleur’s younger sister, Gabrielle, to chat.  
  
“Are you three ready?” Cedric asked, and Harry nodded along with Viktor and Fleur.  
  
“I ‘ave been practicing ever seence we learned of ze Task,” Fleur admitted.  
  
“My friends would barely let me _stop_ practicing,” Harry muttered a bit darkly, remembering how until the exams his muscles had rarely stopped hurting.  
  
“The Durmstrang students vere complaining that they never saw me anymore,” Viktor said. “That vas vhen I cut down on the training, realizing I needed to live as vell as be prepared.”  
  
“Very important,” Cedric said with a nod.  
  
“Harry, why don’t we go out onto the grounds for a bit?” Samuel suggested, and Harry looked away from his friends to realize the parents were done talking and wanted to spend time with their children.  
  
“Sure,” Harry said, shrugging slightly.

…

Remus grinned slightly from the back of the group of five as Harry led him and the others towards the lake. Harry was smiling and looked quite happy, though Remus recognized the tension in the teen’s body as he moved. The maze was obviously never far from the front of his mind today, which made sense.  
  
When Harry used Ankh to surprise Sirius into screaming, Remus couldn’t help but laugh, knowing that Harry definitely had the Marauder spirit in him. Plus, any chance to see Sirius squirm was always amusing to the werewolf.  
  
Finally, though, things turned to more serious topics.  
  
“How did you five find the diadem, Harry?” Samuel asked, and Remus stiffened alongside the others.  
  
Oh, he knew that he was curious; all of them were. There hadn’t been one hint of the teens even being close to finding the Horcrux, then all of a sudden, Astoria had Harry’s mirror and was telling them all that they had another one. It had been a sudden and welcome surprise, but they were all interested by it.  
  
“We’ve been looking for most of the year in the same place, but it took us until this weekend to find it,” Harry sighed, and Remus saw signs of resignation on his body.  
  
“Where did you find it, then?” Daniella asked.  
  
“The Room of Hidden Things,” Harry replied, and Remus knew he wasn’t the only confused one. “It’s one of the rooms that the Room of Requirement can become.”  
  
When he heard that, Remus wanted to hit himself on the head. _Of course_ the Horcrux would be somewhere like that if it was in Hogwarts. The Room of Requirement was hidden, a place that magical searches wouldn’t work in, and it would be hard to find in there.  
  
“Ginny and I realized it could be there months ago, but we didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, so we asked the others not to tell as we searched,” Harry explained. “We spent hours at a time in that room, just going through the piles of junk to see if we could ever find the thing. I finally found it Saturday, much to our relief; I think all of us were afraid of having to search next year as well.”  
  
“Well, we’re quite glad you all found it,” Remus said, smiling at the teen. “It’s a relief to know that another one of those things is gone.”  
  
The others agreed with him, and Remus relaxed a bit as the topic of discussion turned to the Unofficial Quidditch Tournament Harry’s team had won.

…

“Mum, Dad, what are you doing here?” Tracey asked as she walked into the Great Hall for lunch and saw her parents sitting with Harry, Sirius, and Remus at their normal table.  
  
“We’re here to watch Harry in the Third Task, of course,” her mother said as she got up and hugged Tracey. “How was your exam?” she asked as mother and daughter sat down, Tracey sitting in one of the spots left open beside Harry.  
  
“Oh, it wasn’t that hard,” Tracey said, waving it off as she reached for some of the sandwiches on the table. “We learned most of the stuff over the summer anyway, and the rest Harry actually helped us with throughout the year.”  
  
“Really?” Remus asked, looking surprised.  
  
“Harry’s the best in our year at Defense,” Theo said with a smirk as Harry glared at her boyfriend, who had just entered and sat down next to Remus. “Hello, by the way,” he added with a grin.  
  
“Tracey, I thought you said it was only going to be Sirius and Remus,” Daphne said as she sat down at the table with them, and Tracey could only shrug as Blaise joined the group.  
  
“I thought it was only going to be them,” she replied once she had swallowed her mouthful of food.  
  
As talking began at the table, Tracey watched as Ginny sat on Harry’s other side. One-by-one, the colored Journal group joined them at the table. Even Graham and Natalie joined the group, chatting away with Luna and Maya about the electives they would get to choose in their third year, asking which ones they thought were the best. The only person not there was Draco, who, Tracey noted, kept looking at the table with a hint of longing, but they all knew that he had to eat with his friends.  
  
When lunch was done, the group all got up and went to The Den, amazing the four adults who had never seen it before. Tracey, Harry, and Ginny had to accept their comments and amazement about their work for a bit while the other snickered. Finally, though, everyone began playing games or just talking.  
  
“Why don’t we go to the Room and show them some of what we’ve been working on?” Hermione asked Tracey, Harry, and Ginny a couple of hours after lunch.  
  
“Guys, Room of Requirement,” Ginny called after a shared look between the three, and everyone was willing to go.  
  
Once everyone was in the room, Graham and Natalie transformed, racing around the room and chasing one another in their own game of tag. It had become a kind of habit of theirs to play for a while before training, and it didn’t bother anyone, so they kept on doing it.  
  
“Do you understand what they’re saying?” Tracey’s mother asked her a little while later, nodding at the cats racing around the room making noises as the others began training, though Harry had been ordered to only do a light workout to save energy for that evening.  
  
“Not right now, but I can guess what they’re saying,” Tracey admitted. “I’ve transformed and raced around with them before, and they’re usually just taunting one another or laughing. Sometimes they’ll be using this as a chance to get an argument out of their systems.”  
  
“That’s not really a bad idea,” her mum mused, and Tracey nodded in agreement. It had always seemed to be a good thing for the pair, letting out tension and anger by racing around and calling out to each other.  
  
Before they could continue talking, a light brown fox rushed up to Tracey and began making the movements that Tracey recognized as Theo asking her to transform and wrestle with him. Shaking her head with an amused smile, Tracey didn’t hesitate to transform and jump on top of her boyfriend. Even they had to have a chance to have fun at times.

…

“They’re all having fun,” Remus said as he sat down next to Harry, and Harry nodded in agreement, watching his friends.  
  
Graham and Natalie had finished their usual game and were now being taught some more martial arts by Astoria and Ginny, Maya listening to pick up on anything she could while also working on her knife throwing. Luna was using her sword against a training dummy, her face unusually serious, something that only happened while training, though her eyes still always held that dreamy look in them, just less pronounced.  
  
Theo and Tracey were wrestling in their Animagus forms while Hermione, Terry, and Padma watched in amusement, transformed themselves, though just sitting around. Neville was with Hannah and Susan, the former two dueling while the latter kept an eye out to be sure no one got hurt. Justin was in a corner, using the Room’s special area where it played new moves on the wall like a movie theatre, teaching Justin to use his sword. The twins were over in another corner with a cauldron and a bunch of potions ingredients, obviously making pranking supplies.  
  
“They are, but they also know that they’ll all need this sometime in the future,” Harry sighed, his emerald eyes a bit dark as they thought about the Horcruxes and how Voldemort might come back. “At least they aren’t in the Tournament; that would show them how hard what we might have to do in the future is.”  
  
“But you’re in it, and they’re watching,” Remus said, but Harry didn’t even turn to face the man.  
  
“Watching and doing are two very different things,” he stated. “I faced Tom Riddle while they only heard about what the diary did to Ginny. There’s a chance even the youngest two will learn in the future, but we can hope it never happens.”  
  
“I wish you had never had to learn this lesson either, Harry,” Remus whispered, and Harry turned at that, spotting the sad look on the man’s face. Reaching out, Harry placed his hand on Remus’ arm.  
  
“Remus, Moony, I’d be facing this either way,” he said softly. “Tom won’t stop until I’m dead because of the Prophecy, we both know that. At least with this training I’ll be prepared and will be able to survive. I want to grow up, leave school, have a family, get to have a good career, and none of that is even including my ambition to unite all of Hogwarts for generations to come before I even leave school,” Harry finished with a grin, and by then, Remus was smiling too.  
  
“Well, I guess that explains the ambitious part of you the Sorting Hat saw,” Remus stated, “because you’re definitely ambitious if you think you’ll actually succeed in uniting the Houses completely by the time you leave school, despite what you’ve done so far.”  
  
“Watch me, Moony, just watch me,” Harry replied with a mischievous grin. “I’m going to win tonight, and then next year I’ll go back to uniting the Houses and succeed at it by my seventh year.”  
  
“We’ll see, Cub, we’ll see.”

…

Harry stood looking in the mirror in the empty dorm room.  
  
He was wearing the black dragonhide armor from his vault. His hands were still gloved with the invisible gloves that even he rarely noticed most of the time, though they were always there. The only part of his body without the dragonhide was his head as it would be visible there. Unfortunately, the one disadvantage of this style of armor was that the shoulders, elbows, and knees weren’t covered as it wasn’t flexible enough for that, even if one could move normally in it otherwise.  
  
Hidden in the armor were secret slits that didn’t look like anything unless you knew that there were invisible daggers and knives in them. A knife was hidden in each boot, his special dagger was on the right thigh sheathe, and he had another dagger on his left thigh. The only weapon that was visible was Slytherin’s Dagger, which only Harry, Ginny, and Tracey could see or feel.  
  
His wand was in the holster, which was in the normal position on his left arm, ready to be used in the maze. Around his neck was the chain necklace that already had the charm set up, though Tracey would activate the parchment just before the Task began.  
  
Sighing, Harry reached over and grabbed the pants that had been provided for him. Those, along with a long-sleeved shirt, were both in silver and emerald to represent Slytherin. The Hogwarts crest was emblazoned on each shoulder and where the badge would normally be on Harry’s robes. Along the back of the shirt was POTTER, the way it was done on his Quidditch robes. He had asked Tracey and Daphne to help him make slits in the cloth so that he could get to his knives without anyone realizing the slits were there; it had been very successful in the end.  
  
Dressed and ready for the Third Task, Harry left his dorm and headed up to the Great Hall for dinner , which was where his friends and family had said they would be waiting for him. It seemed they all understood that he needed a chance to gather himself before the maze, so they had given it to him.  
  
“Good, it’s not even noticeable,” Sirius said with a sharp nod as Harry sat down. “Even better, you don’t act like you’re wearing anything but the shirt and pants.”  
  
Harry rolled his eyes and accepted the plate Tracey had filled for him. The whole point of his getting the armor almost a month ago was so that he could adjust to wearing it under his robes and while training so that it wouldn’t feel out-of-place on him, meaning it wouldn’t show.  
  
“Padfoot?” Harry said, and Sirius looked at him questioningly. “Shut up before someone hears you, please.”  
  
The others laughed as Sirius flushed red and mumbled something under his breath before turning to his plate and filling his mouth with food.  
  
The twins were cracking jokes and easing the tension felt at the table as the time for the Task drew closer and closer. Even though he was laughing, Harry knew that Tracey and Ginny could feel his body growing more and more tense. Outwardly, Harry didn’t show anything on his face, and he was trying to keep his body as relaxed as possible, but inwardly, Harry was quite nervous and just didn’t want to show it.  
  
“ _You’ll do fine_ ,” Ginny hissed from beside him, tapping him on the arm lightly to remind him that she was there. “ _Just think of it as another practice session_.”  
  
“ _I’ll try_ ,” Harry said, rolling his eyes, but also relaxing slightly as he realized she was trying to remind him that he was ready for this.  
  
Finally, when everyone had eaten and the chatter had grown louder, Dumbledore stood, silencing the Hall as everyone knew what was coming.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes' time, I will be asking you to make your way down to the Quidditch stadium for the third and final Task of the Triwizard Tournament. Will the champions please follow Mr. Bagman down to the stadium now?" he said.  
  
Harry barely heard the entire Hall applauding the Champions as they stood, receiving their final good lucks and hugs from family and friends before they followed Bagman from the Hall.  
  
All five were silent as they walked, even though Bagman had tried to start conversation a couple of times before giving up. They walked onto the Quidditch pitch, which was now completely unrecognizable. A twenty-foot-high hedge ran all the way around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of them: the entrance to the vast maze. The passage beyond it looked dark and creepy.  
  
Five minutes later, the stands began to fill; the air was full of excited voices and the rumbling of feet as the hundreds of students filed into their seats. The sky was a deep, clear blue now, and the first stars were starting to appear. Hagrid, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick came walking into the stadium and approached Bagman and the champions. They were wearing large, red, luminous stars on their hats, all except Hagrid, who had his on the back of his moleskin vest.  
  
"We are going to be patrolling the outside of the maze," Professor McGonagall said to the champions. "If you get into difficulty, and wish to be rescued, send red sparks into the air, and one of us will come and get you, do you understand?"  
  
All four nodded as they understood that this was a safety measure. It actually seemed to relieve them all slightly, knowing they could get out of the maze if they needed to.  
  
"Off you go, then!" Bagman said brightly to the four patrollers.  
  
The four of them walked away in different directions, to station themselves around the maze. Bagman now pointed his wand at his throat, muttered, "Sonorous," and his magically magnified voice echoed into the stands. Harry had only just noticed, looking around, that the six who were giving commentary were all in the teacher’s box with the teachers; Tracey nodded when he caught her eye, and he knew she had activated the connection.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final Task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! In first place with ninety-seven points is Mr. Harry Potter, of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" The cheers and applause sent birds from the Forbidden Forest fluttering into the darkening sky. "In second place, with eighty-nine points - Mr. Cedric Diggory, also of Hogwarts!" More applause. "And in third place with eighty-five points — Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute!” More applause. “And in fourth place — Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!"  
  
Harry spotted his closest friends sitting with the four people he viewed as his parents since his own couldn’t be there. All of them were cheering, though Harry could spot their worry.  
  
“We have four students of Hogwarts School who will be giving the commentary of the entire Task through a scroll that is connected to the lovely necklaces worn by the Champions today along with one student from Durmstrang Institute and another from Beauxbatons Academy!” Bagman continued, and all six waved from their spots.  
  
“Introduce yourselves you six!” he called up to them. “Let them know who you will be talking about during the Task.”  
  
Susan went first, saying she would be in charge of Cedric. Bradley Martin and Annabelle introduced themselves and informed the audience that they were there for Fleur, Aimee adding that she was commenting in French instead of English. Demelza and Andon said the same thing but for Viktor. Finally, Graham said with complete pride in his young voice that he was the commenter for Harry.  
  
“Now that you know their names and voices, I believe it’s time to begin!” Bagman said with a huge grin on his face. “On my whistle, Harry.”  
  
Harry moved to the entrance of the maze, his wand in his hand, ready to run in. He knew he had to make the best of this early start that he could, so he was going to make the most of it. With one final half-grin, half-grimace towards his friends and family, Harry wiped his face clean of all of his emotions.  
  
“Three — two — one —”  
  
The whistle was blown, and Harry ran into the maze, unsure of what he would find in it.


	28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

Harry ran through the maze, used to the idea of walls on either side of him and only a narrow path to run on after all the practice he had gone through. He would have to compliment Hermione on the idea when this was all over. Of course, the silence surrounding him and only the light from his wand, which he had lit almost immediately after entering the maze, made it a lot more disconcerting in this maze than in the Room.

When Harry got to the first fork in the path, he used the Point-Me spell before turning left, trying to ignore the feeling that eyes were following him. Truthfully, it was probably just Professor Moody’s crazy eye, which would certainly be able to see through the maze without much trouble.  
  
The sound of the whistle blowing again told Harry that Cedric had just entered the maze, and he sped up again. When he reached another fork in his path, Harry knew he had to go northwest, so he followed the path the best he could to go that way.  
  
When the whistle blew for a third time, admitting Viktor into the maze, Harry heard movement behind him and spun around to see one of Hagrid’s Blast-Ended Skrewts there, ten feet long. It looked more like a giant scorpion than anything. Its long sting was curled over its back and its thick armor glinted in the light from Harry's wand, which he pointed at it.  
  
“Hagrid, I’m never going to help you in Care of Magical Creatures if it involves anything that’s even potentially dangerous and can be used against me after this!” Harry growled. As he moved quickly left and right, the whistle blowing a final time to state that all the Champions were in the maze.

…

“And Harry is muttering about never helping Hagrid out with any potentially dangerous creatures in Care of Magical Creatures again after this!” Graham called out as he laughed at the Harry’s comment. “It seems, from what Harry is muttering darkly, that he has run into one of the infamous Blast-Ended Skrewts that were being taken care of by the students in Hagrid’s class at the beginning of the year. Who knows how large those things are now?! For all we know, they might be fifteen feet long!”  
  
“Cedric has run into a dead end and certainly doesn’t seem happy about it,” Susan added when Graham had paused to read what Harry was saying and the few movements the necklaces had been charmed to pass on.  
  
“Ooh! Tough luck for Harry, whose Stunner didn’t work on the Skrewt because of the thick armor protecting its body!” Graham said. “He jumps to the side to avoid the stinger, and… yes! He gets off an Impediment Jinx on it, stopping it in its tracks long enough to get away!”  
  
Tracey sighed in relief when she heard that Harry had gotten away from the Skrewt. Astoria had reported that Hagrid claimed the few still alive were ten feet long, which meant they could have caused terrible damage to Harry if he hadn’t gotten the soft underbelly with a curse quickly.  
  
“I agree with Harry,” Blaise muttered. “I’m not going to be helping Hagrid again anytime soon if his creatures are anything like the Skrewts next term.”  
  
Those in Hagrid’s class chuckled slightly at his words, but the undercurrent of the laugh told Tracey that they all agreed with Blaise and Harry. Maybe their words would stop Hagrid from doing anything like that again.  
  
“Oh no! Cedric has just run into the same Skrewt as Harry, and it’s angrier after Harry’s curse!” Susan exclaimed, her worry for her fellow Hufflepuff evident.  
  
“Did they put a Dementor in the maze?!” Graham exclaimed. “Harry believes he’s up against a Dementor in there!”  
  
Tracey looked over the maze and saw a silver light somewhere along the far edge of the maze. She smiled grimly, knowing that the light was from his Patronus. Of course, the Dementor wouldn’t be in the maze, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be a Boggart, which all of the Slytherins knew was a Dementor for Harry.  
  
“He cast a Patronus Charm!” Graham exclaimed. “If the rumors are true, his takes the form of a stag, and it seems that that is the silver light we are seeing over on the side of the maze by the Hufflepuff stands. Well, it seems Harry now realizes the Dementor is actually his Boggart, and he quickly used _Riddikulus_ on it to get rid of the Boggart! On Harry goes.”  
  
“Fleur has just reached her first true challenge in the form of an Acromantula,” Bradley finally commented, surprising Tracey as she hadn’t realized until then that neither Viktor nor Fleur had been commented on. Now she was wondering about Viktor. “It seems she just can’t find the correct spell to use on the three-foot-tall spider. Hopefully she finds it soon!”  
  
“Viktor has been intercepted by a large group of very upset Bowtruckles, all of which are attacking him without hesitation. He’s trying to Stun them as fast as he can, but it isn’t working well, if the curses he’s muttering mean anything. Ouch! Krum has now resorted to Cutting Curses to just get away from the Bowtruckles, though at least it seems he’s now succeeding and has gotten away from them. However, the gasps he’s letting out lead me to believe that he was hurt by the Bowtruckles and needs to use a healing spell .”

…

Harry continued on after the Boggart-Dementor. That had not been a fun thing to run into, but he should have expected something like that as he had known Boggarts would be in the maze from Astoria.  
  
Turning, Harry ran into a dead end. Growling in frustration, muttering about dead ends so that Graham would know, he turned around and froze. In front of him was a Hippogriff. At least he knew how to deal with them.  
  
Bowing low, Harry was careful not to blink until he knew his eyes weren’t visible to the creature in front of him.

…

“And Harry has met a Hippogriff as he turned to find a different path after hitting a dead end!” Graham called. “From what I can gather, he’s now bowing — or so Susan informs me — and is hoping the Hippogriff will bow. Ah, there is goes! Harry is telling the Hippogriff it’s a good Hippogriff but he has to go. Off Harry goes, further into the maze!”  
  
“At least he’s doing well,” Sirius muttered to Remus, who nodded in agreement.  
  
It was hard for Sirius to sit there in the stands knowing that his godson was in a maze fighting off creatures left and right.  
  
“Cedric had better watch out! There’s now a fire crab in front of him, and from what he’s saying, it’s turning around so that it can attack him,” Susan said. “And Cedric uses a Flame-Freezing Charm, stopping the fire in its tracks while trying to edge around it, probably an _Aguamenti_ on the tip of his tongue if he needs it. It seems he does as Cedric uses the water charm to stop another burst of fire, hitting the fire crab in the process and receiving angry noises in return. I hope Cedric has another plan to get past the upset creature!”  
  
“The poor boy,” Daniella said softly. “What was Hagrid thinking when he put all these creatures in the maze?”  
  
“That they’re supposed to have a challenge in the maze, Mum,” Tracey said, turning to face her mother as Sirius watched. “Harry knew what sort of creatures he might come up against, and it’s obvious all four were ready for anything with Hagrid.”  
  
“It’s true,” Hannah Abbot added, turning around also. “Cedric was studying up on his creatures for the Task.”  
  
“I saw both Fleur and Viktor in the library in the monster section,” Padma added helpfully.  
  
“Harry was doing the same when preparing,” Tracey finished. “They’ll be fine.”  
  
Sirius could only hope that they were all correct.

…

Harry was shaking his head as he continued to hurry through the maze, not stopping for anything if he didn’t have to; this wasn’t the place he wanted to be caught not moving with who knows what in the maze.  
  
So far he had dealt with a Boggart, a Hippogriff, and a Blast-Ended Skrewt. Harry wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was coming up next. Of course, hearing a scream wasn’t something he wanted to hear either, especially as it could only be Fleur as she was the only female in the maze and no noise from outside the maze could be heard.  
  
“FLEUR!?” he called, worried now. Unfortunately, Harry had no way of knowing what was going on, so he moved on, worry for Fleur in the back of his mind as the tension in his body increased.

…

“Why is Viktor so quiet and not running into anything?” Ginny asked Tracey softly.  
  
“I don’t know, but I’m worried about it,” Tracey replied, and Ginny could tell that she was.  
  
“It seems Viktor and Fleur are within talking distance of one another as Fleur is saying hello to Viktor!” Bradley called, and that relieved Ginny until she heard Demelza’s next words.  
  
“Viktor is… _using the Cruciatus Curse on Fleur?!?!_ ” Demelza exclaimed, and everyone began whispering, some screaming about it.  
  
Above all the chaos, Ginny could hear Fleur’s scream from the maze.  
  
“That can’t be Viktor doing it,” Hermione said immediately. “That’s just not what Viktor is like.” Everyone knew that she wasn’t just saying this as the girl Viktor had taken to the Yule Ball as they all knew it was true.  
  
“Is it possible someone is controlling him?” Astoria asked quietly, and Ginny saw that she and Natalie looked a bit frightened. Of course, they had nothing on Neville, who was deathly pale and had both Sirius and Remus talking to him quietly.  
  
“The Imperius Curse,” Tracey said softly, and Ginny realized that it was quite possible. They had known all year that there was a plan to get to Harry; it was quite possible this was part of it.  
  
Red sparks flew into the air, and everyone fell silent as they realized that Fleur had given up. Soon, someone would be escorting her out of the maze, her time done.  
  
“It seems Viktor has moved on,” Demelza said, her voice shaking a bit, but then it went strong and she continued. “Everyone has talked with Viktor all year, and we all know that he isn’t the type to use an Unforgivable. Something is wrong with him, and I think it should be looked into before he’s arrested for something he didn’t do of his own free will!”  
  
Ginny led the cheering along with her friends, and soon everyone who knew Viktor Krum from the school year of hanging out with him in The Den was cheering in agreement with Demelza’s words. After that, Ginny knew it would be looked into by Aurors, Dumbledore, and the teachers.  
  
Now she could only hope Viktor didn’t catch up to Harry.

…

The red sparks in the air caught Harry’s attention only momentarily before he moved on, though his mind was spinning. At least he knew that Fleur would be okay as someone would get her. Now he had the maze to concentrate on.  
  
In front of him was a gold mist that he didn’t understand. If Harry had to guess, it would be like some of the wire traps he and the girls pulled, but of a slightly different sort.  
  
“A gold mist… What in the world could it do?” he muttered for Graham, not because he needed to think aloud.  
  
Just one glance at the odd gold mist had told him that it was an enchantment, but he didn’t recognize it at all, which was why he was cautious to step in it. The only reason Harry hadn’t turned around was because it certainly looked like a prank rather than something that would hurt him.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Harry walked forward, muttering, “Let’s hope I don’t regret this.”  
  
Turning his walk into a run, Harry froze the moment he was hanging upside-down, his glasses held in place by the charm that he had put on them long ago so that his glasses always stayed in place once on his face unless he himself moved them.  
  
“I’ve got to ask Professor Flitwick how he managed to turn the world upside-down with a charm!” Harry exclaimed, grinning as he took a step forward and continued running, the world back to normal.  
  
To him, it had been a prank more than anything, not something he really had to overcome. Years of prank wars and war games with the twins as well as Sirius and Remus had taught Harry to just accept what happened to him and keep on going.  
Chuckling slightly, Harry continued on.

…

“And Harry has met a gold mist!” Graham called.  
  
Professor Flitwick laughed lightly from his spot along the edge of the maze. Harry Potter would be the perfect person to meet that mist. He’d find it amusing more than worrying.  
  
“He claims it has turned him upside-down!” the first year Slytherin continued. “If Professor Flitwick can hear me from his spot around the maze, Harry plans to ask you how you did the charm sometime in the near future.”  
  
Flitwick laughed aloud when he heard that. It would be dangerous to teach the Slytherin that charm, but Flitwick also knew that the teen would find it amusing and use it in many creative ways. All he could was hope the boy would come to him about it soon so that it could be used before term ended in a few days.

…

  
“Harry, Harry, Harry,” Remus muttered, shaking his head in amusement as he knew the teen had said that to amuse everyone. Of course, the Slytherin would obviously ask his professor about it as it would be a perfect prank spell.  
  
“He’s still okay,” Sirius whispered, and Remus knew that his friend was relieved. Despite his calm cover while Harry was with them, Sirius was frightened for his godson, beyond frightened even.  
  
“He’ll be okay, Padfoot,” Remus said. “Harry’s friends have been preparing him for months now, and he’ll survive, possibly even winning in the process.”  
  
“You’re right,” Sirius sighed, putting his head in his hands. “Why is it that you’ve always been right?” Remus was amused as this was something both Sirius and James had always said to him when they had been younger.  
  
“Because compared to you I actually use my brain?” he replied a bit sarcastically, using the same response he had done back in his school days. The comment made Sirius snort and look up, a light of amusement in his eyes as he took a deep breath and looked back at the maze.  
  
Just then Hagrid got to the front of the maze, Fleur Delacour in his arms. She was conscious, but obviously feeling the aftereffects of the Cruciatus Curse, her blue shirt and pants ripped in places, though there was very little blood.  
  
When they finally allowed her to speak, she was right below the group of Harry’s friends, which was near the bottom of the stands. Remus could hear every word she said, and he knew all of the Animagi in the group could as well.  
  
“’Is eyes were slightly glazed, and ‘e didn’t act at all as ‘e normally did,” she said, her voice shaking terribly. “I deed not know ze man looking at me as ‘e used zat spell.”  
  
Remus knew now that Tracey had been correct before. What Fleur described sounded like a Viktor Krum under the Imperius Curse, unable to control his own actions.  
  
Without knowing it, he mirrored Ginny’s thoughts as he hoped that Harry wouldn’t run into Viktor, mainly because he didn’t know what the Durmstrang student could be forced to do to Harry.

…

Harry dodged to the side as a stinger hit the ground right where Harry had been just moments after turning a corner. Mentally, he made a note to thank Tracey and Ginny for the training that helped his instincts learn to sense something headed his way.  
  
“Bloody hell, not another Skrewt!” he exclaimed as he gathered himself and realized what he was facing. “Hagrid, if I ever see another one of these again, it’ll be too soon!”  
  
Harry ducked down low, keeping close to the ground as he tried to find the soft underbelly of the Skrewt like he had the last time he fought one. Maybe if he did this properly, he’d be able to Stun it…  
  
Sliding forward when the stinger came at him again, Harry aimed upwards and yelled out, “ _Stupefy_!” The moment he had cast the spell, Harry rolled to the side and out from underneath the Skrewt as it fell to the ground just to the left of him, so close that Harry could feel the vibrations of it hitting the ground. In his mind, Harry knew he was lucky he had moved when he did; otherwise, he’d be trapped under the Skrewt until it woke up again, and he didn’t want that.  
  
Pushing off the ground, Harry continued on his way, using the Point-Me spell to figure out which forks and paths would lead him to the northwest and the Cup.  
  
As he ran, he heard a voice from the path parallel to his own, and what was being said made Harry’s blood run cold as he stopped running and froze in place.  
  
"What are you doing?" Cedric's voice yelled. "What the hell d'you think you're doing?"  
  
" _Crucio_!" Viktor’s voice called darkly.  
  
Harry heard Cedric’s screams as they filled the air, and that got him into action. No matter how badly he wanted to win, Harry knew he couldn’t ignore something like this.  
  
Racing forward, Harry found the place where he heard the screams the loudest and used the Reductor Curse twice on the hedge, creating a large enough hole that he could use one of his knives to cut away the branches and brambles to get through to where Cedric was.  
  
When Harry got through, he froze again at the sight of Cedric on the ground, jerking and twitching, Viktor standing above him, his wand pointed right at the Hufflepuff. Viktor looked up at Harry, and Harry was surprised to see the older boy’s eyes were a bit glazed while his face sneered, a look he had never seen on Viktor’s face in all the months he had talked with him. It was obvious that Viktor wasn’t doing this of his own accord; someone was controlling him, and Harry guessed it was by the Imperius Curse.  
  
“ _Stupefy_!” Harry shouted, raising his wand so fast that Viktor couldn’t react.  
  
Putting away his knife, Harry rushed forward to kneel next to Cedric. The Hufflepuff was sitting up, his body shaking a bit as he tried to get over the effects of the torture curse. Harry put a hand on his shoulder to help steady him, and Cedric grimaced as he looked up at Harry, but Harry knew that it was meant to be a slight smile.  
  
“Are you okay?” Harry asked softly, helping Cedric stand up and keeping a hand under his arm until he was able to stand on his own.  
  
“I’ll be fine,” Cedric replied, his voice a bit shaky, but more steady than Harry had been expecting. “Why was he doing that?” he asked, looking down at Viktor. “Viktor’s not the type of bloke I’d say would use that curse.”  
  
“That’s because he isn’t,” Harry said, knowing perfectly well that his words were being sent to the scroll that Graham was reading; that was partially why he was saying them with the other reason to reassure Cedric. “His eyes were glazed slightly, and he was sneering. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him sneer before; that’s Draco’s thing.”  
  
“True,” Cedric agreed with a hint of a smile, which Harry had been hoping for.  
  
“If I had to guess, I’d say it was the Imperius Curse,” Harry sighed. “Why else would he suddenly do something like that?”  
  
“I have to agree,” Cedric admitted after thinking about it for a little.  
  
“Come on,” Harry said, walking over to where Viktor lay unconscious, raising his wand up into the air and muttering the spell to send up red sparks. “Let’s get going again.”  
  
“Yeah,” Cedric said softly before looking up quickly. “Hey Harry?”  
  
“Yeah Cedric?” Harry replied, looking up at the Hufflepuff.  
  
“Thanks,” he said, “for stopping him.” Cedric gestured to Viktor.  
  
“No problem,” Harry said with a small smile. “You’d so the same for me.” With that, Harry took off down the path, Cedric right behind him as they went to the fork in the maze and separated again, both wanting to win as they were the last two in the Task now.  
  
It would be a Hogwarts victory no matter what.

…

“All three Champions are in the same area!” Graham, Susan, and Demelza exclaimed at the same time, Andon repeating it moments after. They all looked at Susan to continue.  
  
“Cedric has obviously spotted Viktor, and Harry is within hearing distance, though it’s possible that he’s not in the same path. Cedric is asking Viktor what he’s doing,” she said.  
  
“Viktor is using the Cruciatus on Cedric!” Demelza exclaimed, her voice much more steady compared to the last time it had happened.  
  
“Harry is obviously in the next path over as he’s now using the Reductor Curse to break through the hedge to get to the pair!” Graham continued. “He is obviously a bit stunned by the sight, even if he had heard the curse being uttered, but now he’s Stunned Viktor!”  
  
“Harry’s helping Cedric stand up, asking if he’s alright,” Susan continued as Demelza and Andon fell silent, their turn done as Viktor was finished; it was up to Susan and Graham to commentate now.  
  
“Cedric claims he’s fine,” Graham continued, “and now they’re talking about Viktor. It seems they’ve come to the same conclusions as we had: This isn’t the Viktor they know.” Both Graham and Susan gasped as they read what Harry said next.  
  
“Harry claims he believes Viktor was under the Imperius Curse!” Susan exclaimed. “It makes sense, but who could have done this?” she asked, looking worried as Maya looked in her friend’s direction.  
  
Maya was worried for Harry, very worried after all of this, but she was also worried about her brother. As much as he and Natalie had trained the past year, they were only twelve, and it worried Maya greatly that he was reading this sort of thing directly, learning more than someone his age should. Of course, she was relieved it was indirectly rather than firsthand, but he was her younger brother, and no sibling wanted their younger one to go through something like this if it could be helped.  
  
Still, Maya’s worry for Harry was greater than her worry for Graham at the moment, so she didn’t do anything as she listened to her brother and Susan read what was going on, adding in their own opinions here and there as Harry and Cedric split up again, going off on their own.  
  
“He’s okay,” Tracey sighed softly from behind Maya, and she turned around to see that both Tracey and Ginny had been worried about Harry meeting up with Viktor, which was understandable.  
  
“Harry’s going to win,” Maya stated, and both girls grinned at her.

…

Harry stopped in his tracks when he saw something he had only seen in his textbook, but then he realized he had to continue forward. It was a sphinx. It had the body of an over-large lion: great clawed paws and a long yellowish tail ending in a brown tuft. Its head, however, was that of a woman. She turned her long, almond-shaped eyes upon Harry as he approached. He raised his wand, hesitating. She was not crouching as if to spring, but pacing from side to side of the path, blocking his progress. Then she spoke, in a deep, hoarse voice.  
  
"You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me."  
  
Luckily, Harry had always been somewhat interested in Greek Mythology, so he knew better to than expect the sphinx to let him pass. No, Harry had to answer a riddle, and he knew it.  
  
“What is your riddle?” he asked, and Harry thought she might have just smiled a tiny bit before she began to recite her riddle.  
  
“ _First think of the person who lives in disguise,  
Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.  
Next, tell me what’s always the last thing to mend,  
The middle of the middle and the end of the end?  
And finally give me the sound often heard  
During the search for a hard-to-find word.  
Now string them together, and answer me this,  
Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?_ ”  
  
Harry had closed his eyes as the riddle was recited, having always found it the best way to think. He knew instinctively that the sphinx would not attack unless he answered wrong; besides, his senses were on high alert and he would move the instant he needed to.  
  
Now, to figure out the riddle.

…

“And Harry has run into a Sphinx!” Graham called as Hermione looked up at that. “I’ll recite the riddle he has asked for once she’s spoken the entire thing.”  
  
Hermione was curious about the riddle, wondering what he would be asked. Her mind needed something other than the dangers her friend was in to concentrate on, so this was very welcome.  
  
Graham repeated the riddle Harry had been told by the Sphinx.  
  
“Let’s see how Harry figures it out as most of you figure it out on your own. I’ll let you know in a minute how Harry did it!”  
  
Hermione thought it through, and the answer came to her quickly enough. The first part spoke of a spy, and “er” was a sound made often when thinking. Add all of it together, and one got “spider” as the answer. All she could do now was hope that Harry got the riddle as well.  
  
“And Harry’s gotten it!” Graham exclaimed. “He didn’t speak much, but some of his muttering included the word “spy” and the sound “er” as well as the last line about what creature he wouldn’t want to kiss. In the end, the riddle’s answer was ‘spider’!”  
  
Hermione smiled, glad that her friend was going to continue on.

…

The riddle had been easy enough for Harry, who was now running down the path. He used the Point-Me spell at the corner, turning to his right and seeing a glow that had to be the Cup at the end.  
  
Unfortunately, Harry also saw Cedric running for it. If it came down to a race, Cedric would most likely win, despite Harry’s speed, because of his longer legs, but Harry ran full out, trying to get to the Cup first.  
  
Then, out of nowhere, Harry saw an Acromantula to his left, right where Cedric was going, but Cedric hadn’t seen it. Neither of them had come this far to lose right at the end because of a final obstacle!  
  
“Cedric, on your left!” Harry cried loudly, and Cedric turned to his left instead of Harry just in time to stop himself from running into it, but he lost his wand in the process as he tripped.  
  
“ _Diffindo_!” Harry cried, aiming the curse at the leg of the giant spider to draw it away from Cedric long enough to allow the Hufflepuff to grab his wand.  
  
The spider turned towards Harry, who aimed his wand at the body and called out, “ _Reducto_!” The spider didn’t fall, but it was sent flying back a bit by the curse, giving Cedric the time needed to stand up and aim as well.  
  
“Stunners on three!” Harry called, and Cedric nodded. “One — two — three — _Stupefy_!” Harry yelled at the same time as Cedric, both hitting the spider head on.  
  
The spider keeled over sideways, flattening a nearby hedge, and strewing the path with a tangle of hairy legs. Harry walked towards Cedric, making sure to go around the spider.  
  
"Harry!" he heard Cedric shouting. "You all right? Did it fall on you?"  
  
“No!” Harry replied just before he got around the spider, and Cedric saw him from his spot by the gleaming Triwizard Cup.  
  
“We both made it,” Cedric said, not moving to claim the Cup as he looked at Harry, a fourth year Slytherin who had made it all the way to the end when two seventh years hadn’t succeeded, though they both knew it wasn’t their faults, really.  
  
“We did,” Harry agreed, waiting to see where Cedric was going with this as it was obvious Cedric had won; he was the one next to the Cup, after all. “Take it; you’re the one there.”  
  
“But I wouldn’t be if you hadn’t warned me,” Cedric replied, turning so that he could look between the Cup, Acromantula, and Harry, and Harry understood what Cedric was thinking.  
  
“It doesn’t matter, you’re there and you’ve won,” he said, his wand pointed at the ground, though Harry kept his voice steady as he couldn’t be disappointed losing to Cedric after all this.  
  
“But you made sure everyone knew what the First Task was,” Cedric stated, and Harry knew that it didn’t matter that the necklaces were telling everyone this — it was better that they all knew the truth anyway. “We might all have found out a different way, but you told us about the dragons so that we’d all know beforehand.”  
  
“I’d rather win by showing that I could win when all of us had an equal footing,” Harry said, though he was partially lying as he wouldn’t have felt all that badly if he had won by being ahead of the others.  
  
“Still,” Cedric said, “you helped us all with the egg. None of us had any idea what to do with the things until you mentioned listening underwater. It might have taken us another month or more to figure it out otherwise.”  
  
“True,” Harry admitted, but he was also beginning to see another option to all of this.  
  
“You’re the true Champion, Harry, the true winner,” Cedric said, stepping both towards Harry and away from the Cup.  
  
“I might be,” Harry said, “but you’re the true Hogwarts Champion, the one of us who was supposed to be part of this.” Cedric was shaking his head, but Harry wasn’t finished. “Why don’t we split it in half? The one you call the true Champion and the one I call the true Hogwarts Champion, taking the Cup together. It’ll mean it’s still a Hogwarts victory, and both true Champions get it, even if we look at each other as different true Champions.”  
  
“Deal,” Cedric said, turning slightly as Harry walked towards the Cup.  
  
Together, Harry and Cedric stepped up to the Cup and grabbed it, Harry still with his wand in his hand.  
  
With a tug on their navels, both boys were pulled away from the center of the maze and Hogwarts.

…

Albus Dumbledore was worried for both of his Hogwarts students as he sat in the teacher’s box and watched the Final Task, listening to the commentary by the six students in three different languages, all of which he understood and spoke. He would admit that he was worried for all four Champions, but Harry and Cedric more so than Fleur and Viktor.  
  
When he heard Viktor Krum using the Cruciatus Curse on Fleur Delacour, he sat up straight and began studying the crowd, suddenly more alert than before. There was no reason for Mr. Krum to be using that spell, of course, so why had he been using it? Nothing he had seen or observed over the school year led him to believe that any of the Durmstrang students would use that curse, so why was he now?  
  
It got even worse when Dumbledore heard Fleur Delacour’s description of Mr. Krum. The description led to only one thing: The Imperius Curse.  
  
If only Dumbledore could find out who was using it on Mr. Krum.  
  
Of course, things only worsened when Mr. Krum used the curse again, this time on Mr. Diggory. Luckily, Mr. Potter had arrived and Stunned Mr. Krum, leaving only he and Mr. Diggory in the maze. Their conversation also led to many people including Madam Amelia Bones to taking Mr. Krum and testing him for signs of having had the Imperius placed on him, and it was found that he had, indeed, been placed under the curse not long before. He would get by without any trouble as it was announced by Madam Bones the findings the moment they were confirmed, so not even his fellow students were upset with him now.  
  
When Dumbledore heard about Mr. Diggory and Mr. Potter working together to take out the Acromantula, he had to smile slightly as it showed how far Mr. Potter had come in stopping the disagreements between the Houses, especially against Slytherin.  
  
Hearing the words coming from the two boys as they talked about how Mr. Potter had gone out of his way to make sure everyone was on an even footing surprised everyone except Mr. Krum and Miss Delacour, both of whom were nodding in agreement to what Mr. Diggory was claiming.  
  
As Mr. Diggory declared that Mr. Potter was the true Champion of the Triwizard Tournament, it was obvious most of the audience believed it, even Mr. Diggory’s own friends. Of course, when Mr. Potter stated that Mr. Diggory was the true Hogwarts Champion, everyone remembered the Goblet of Fire and realized both were correct.  
  
Mr. Potter’s final decision to share the Cup was met by applause from almost everyone, even if he could not hear it in the maze.  
  
Of course, Albus Dumbledore watched the parchments in front of Miss Bones and Mr. Pritchard as the two Champions took the Cup, and he was stunned by what he read on it, more so than he had been the entire Task.  
  
_*Grabs the Cup with his left hand and feels a pull on his navel as he’s suddenly pulled away*_  
  
Albus Dumbledore realized right then that the Cup had been a Portkey, and he now had two students off of school grounds, and he had no idea where they were .


	29. Chapter Twenty-Nine

Harry’s feet hit the ground, and he dropped the Cup immediately, raising his wand on instinct as he looked around. Beside him, Cedric had also dropped the Cup and was looking around, though he took out his wand again when he saw Harry’s.

They had left the Hogwarts grounds completely; they had obviously traveled quite a distance because Harry couldn’t even see the usual mountains. They were standing instead in a dark and overgrown graveyard; a small church was visible just to their right. Harry could just make out the outline of a fine old house on the hillside.

Harry had the strangest feeling that someone was watching them both as he continued to look around.

“Did anyone tell you the Cup was a Portkey?” Cedric asked quietly.

“No, because this isn’t part of the Task,” Harry replied, everything clicking into place in his head. “This is why I was entered into the Tournament, and this is why Viktor was Imperiused. Someone wanted me to win and touch the Cup so that I’d be out of Dumbledore’s reach.”

In Harry’s mind, he finished the statement: _Someone wanted me here so that Voldemort could be resurrected._

Then, Harry realized something: They didn’t know about the necklaces! As long as he and Cedric didn’t mention them, the entire school would know about what happened here, even if he and Cedric didn’t make it.

That thought made Harry, not relax exactly, but he didn’t feel as anxious anymore.

Of course, that was squashed when he realized someone _was_ watching them.

“Someone’s coming,” he stated, and Cedric tensed up beside him.

Through the darkness, they watched the figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves. Harry couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, he could tell that it was carrying something. The figure was short, and wearing a hooded cloak pulled up over its head to obscure its face. As it got nearer, Harry saw that the thing in the person’s arms looked like a baby.

Harry realized right away who the person was once he thought about it. Peter Pettigrew, known as Wormtail to his former friends, had escaped from Azkaban and disappeared; the only place he could have gone was back to his master, Lord Voldemort. It seemed Harry had found Wormtail again.

Pettigrew stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six feet from them. For a second Harry and Cedric and Pettigrew simply looked at one another.

And then, without warning, Harry's scar exploded with pain. It was agony such as he had never felt in all his life. Keeping himself upright and looking at Pettigrew without losing his wand or grabbing his head took all his might as tears came to his eyes and his emerald green eyes fought to close.

From far away, above his head, he heard a high, cold voice say, "Kill the spare."

Harry realized a moment too late, in his pain-filled stupor, what it meant, and by then it was too late to do anything about it.

A swishing noise and a second voice, which screeched the words to the night: “ _Avada Kedavra_!”

All Harry could do was watch through his tears as the green light sped from the wand of Peter Pettigrew towards Harry and Cedric, hitting Cedric right in the chest.

As if in slow-motion, Harry watched Cedric as his body began to fall, the light gone from his gray eyes, until he hit the ground and lay spread-eagled on the ground, his face showing nothing but open-mouthed surprise.

Cedric Diggory was dead.

…

It was complete chaos as it quickly became known that the Triwizard Cup was a Portkey.

Tracey had jumped up and rushed to the teachers’ box. She was the only person who could do anything to the parchments, and she knew she would be asked to.

Graham and Susan continued to comment over the noise, their voices shocked and scared for Harry and Cedric.

“Cedric is asking Harry if he knew the Cup was a Portkey,” Susan said, and the audience quieted down quite a bit as they listened to the commentary on the two missing boys, though Tracey continued to run as Dumbledore gestured to her to get over there.

“Harry says it isn’t part of the Task, but…” Graham broke off in shock before gathering himself. “He’s claiming that _this_ is why he was entered into the Tournament. The whole point of Viktor being Imperiused and his being entered at all was to get him to touch the Triwizard Cup because whoever did it wanted him out of Dumbledore’s reach.”

Tracey had figured that out already as she ran, but around here, everyone was silent in shock at finding it out. Of course, none of them realized that it was Voldemort who was behind it. Only those Tracey had been sitting with could figure it out, and she knew that they were doing it as she reached the stairs to the teachers’ box and tore up them, even tripping once in the process, though she caught herself.

“Someone’s coming,” Graham and Susan said together as Tracey reached them, stopping to regain her breath as she read over their shoulders with Dumbledore, shocked by what she was reading.

“Kill the spare,” she whispered almost silently as she read it, Graham and Susan reading it in dead voices to the silent crowd, no one able to speak a word.

“ _NO!_ ” all three of them yelled as they read the next two words.

Susan’s paper went completely blank, the spells on the necklace unable to work with a dead body.

Tracey was frozen as she realized the boy who was basically her twin brother had just watched their friend die right in front of his eyes, all for a suggestion he had made. Harry wasn’t going to get over this for a long time, and there was nothing she could do to fix it.

Around Tracey, everyone was silent as it wasn’t obvious which boy had died. Finally, Susan spoke as the person for Cedric.

“Cedric… is dead,” she whispered, but the _Sonorous_ Charm on her allowed everyone to hear it.

Mr. and Mrs. Diggory had tears running silently down their faces, but there wasn’t much more of a reaction beyond the tears. Everyone was waiting to hear from Graham what was happening to Harry Potter. The reaction to Cedric’s death would come later.

Graham, realizing this, prepared himself to read when anyone spoke, and Tracey and Susan each put a hand on him to give him more strength to pull through it. This was going to be tough on the twelve-year-old, but Tracey knew he would do it for Harry, someone he idolized.

_Please Harry, live,_ Tracey prayed silently. _Survive this and come back to all of us, please!_

…

Harry was numb with both pain and shock, the pain in his scar dying down, though it was certainly still there. He knew disbelief was obvious on his face as he stared down at his feet, to where Cedric laid, the life gone from him forever. In his hand was his wand, but it did just about as much good as a toothpick would in his state of shock.

Pettigrew had put down his bundle, lit his wand, and was dragging Harry toward the marble headstone now after knocking the wand from Harry’s slack hand. Harry saw the name upon it flickering in the wand light before he was forced around and slammed against it.

TOM RIDDLE

“My wand,” Harry muttered under his breath, internally cursing himself, but he also knew that what had happened couldn’t have been helped.

Pettigrew was now conjuring tight cords which snaked around Harry, tying him from neck to ankles to the headstone. Harry kicked out with his right leg, hitting Pettigrew in the knee, but Pettigrew waved his wand and touched it to his knee before getting up slowly, obviously in pain, and hitting Harry hard with the hand that was missing a finger.

“Leave me alone, Pettigrew!” Harry yelled as he felt the pain from the blow to his shoulder, which was admittedly less than he often got from a semi-light punch from Ginny on an almost daily basis.

But Pettigrew, who had finished conjuring the ropes, did not reply; he was busy checking the tightness of the cords, his fingers trembling uncontrollably, rumbling over the knots. Once sure that Harry was bound so tightly to the headstone that he couldn't move an inch, Pettigrew withdrew a length of black material from the inside of his cloak and stuffed it roughly into Harry's mouth; then, without a word, he turned and hurried away. Harry couldn't make a sound, nor could he see where Pettigrew had gone; he couldn't turn his head to see beyond the headstone; he could see only what was right in front of him.

Cedric's body was lying some twenty feet away. Some way beyond him, glinting in the starlight, lay the Triwizard Cup. Harry's wand was on the ground at Cedric's feet. The bundle of robes that Harry had thought was a baby was close by, at the foot of the grave. It seemed to be stirring fretfully. Harry watched it, and his scar seared with pain again… and he suddenly knew that he didn't want to see what was in those robes… he didn't want that bundle opened…

He could hear noises at his feet. He looked down and saw a gigantic snake slithering through the grass, circling the headstone where he was tied. Pettigrew's fast, wheezy breathing was growing louder again. It sounded as though he was forcing something heavy across the ground. Then he came back within Harry's range of vision, and Harry saw him pushing a stone cauldron to the foot of the grave. It was full of what seemed to be water - Harry could hear it slopping around — though he knew it to be a potion of some sort, and it was larger than any cauldron Harry had ever used; a great stone belly large enough for a full-grown man to sit in.

The thing inside the bundle of robes on the ground was stirring more persistently, as though it was trying to free itself. Now Pettigrew was busying himself at the bottom of the cauldron with a wand. Suddenly there were crackling flames beneath it. The large snake slithered away into the darkness. The potion in the cauldron seemed to heat very fast. The surface began not only to bubble, but to send out fiery sparks, as though it were on fire. Steam was thickening, blurring the outline of Pettigrew tending the fire. The movements beneath the robes became more agitated. And Harry heard the high, cold voice again.

"Hurry!"

The whole surface of the water was alight with sparks now. It might have been encrusted with diamonds.

"It is ready, Master."

“Now…” the cold voice said, and Harry knew who it was, even though the last time he had heard it was from the sixteen-year-old version of this _thing._

Pettigrew pulled open the robes on the ground, revealing what was inside them, and Harry let out a yell that was strangled in the wad of material blocking his mouth, unable to stop it, even if he had wanted to.

It was as though Pettigrew had flipped over a stone and revealed something ugly, slimy, and blind — but worse, a hundred times worse. The thing Pettigrew had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child, except that Harry had never seen anything less like a child. It was hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish black. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face - no child alive ever had a face like that — flat and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes.

The thing seemed almost helpless; it raised its thin arms, put them around Pettigrew's neck, and Pettigrew lifted it. As he did so, his hood fell back, and Harry saw the look of revulsion on Pettigrew's weak, pale face in the firelight as he carried the creature to the rim of the cauldron. At least Harry wasn’t alone in what he thought of the thing, even if he shared it with Pettigrew.

For one moment, Harry saw the evil, flat face illuminated in the sparks dancing on the surface of the potion. And then Pettigrew lowered the creature into the cauldron; there was a hiss, and it vanished below the surface; Harry heard its frail body hit the bottom with a soft thud.

In his mind, he wished it would drown, but he had known better as soon as he had realized the cauldron was filled with a potion, not water. There was nothing he could do but watch as the scene unfolded in front of him.

…

Tracey cursed almost silently when she read that Harry didn’t have his wand. Even though it didn’t actually say it, the fact that Harry had said “My wand,” proved that he had lost it somehow. It was probably the shock of Cedric’s death, she thought, knowing that no one would be able to keep a hold of his or her wand at age fourteen when a friend was murdered in front of them. No, the fact that Harry even had the mind to mutter stuff to them said more than anything.

Of course, finding out that it was Pettigrew that was there with Harry came as a slight surprise until she remembered Harry reporting that from his dream over the summer and realizing that the man had nowhere else to go after escaping Azkaban.

When the scroll said that Harry had been tied up and gagged, Tracey sighed but realized that they at least knew some of what was going on. Besides, what else would they do with a prisoner?

The thing that scared Tracey the most was the name before some of what was being said: Tom Marvolo Riddle. When charming the necklaces and scrolls, she and Harry had agreed that the Champions would have no name in front of their words as it would be rare for anyone else to say something that the necklaces would pick up in the maze, but anyone else speaking would have a name in front of them.

Graham and Susan understood completely what the name meant, but they didn’t say anything about it, just calling him Tom Marvolo Riddle and then Riddle. Dumbledore obviously knew of Voldemort’s real name as he had paled when he had seen the name on the parchment, just as the three students had.

All Tracey could do now was hope that Harry would live as it was obvious Tom Riddle was about to regain his body.

…

Pettigrew was speaking. His voice shook; he seemed frightened beyond his wits. He raised his wand, closed his eyes, and spoke to the night.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"

The surface of the grave at Harry's feet cracked. Horrified, Harry watched as a fine trickle of dust rose into the air at Pettigrew's command and fell softly into the cauldron. The diamond surface of the water broke and hissed; it sent sparks in all directions and turned a vivid, poisonous-looking blue.

And now Pettigrew was whimpering. He pulled a long, thin, shining silver dagger from inside his cloak. His voice broke into petrified sobs.

"Flesh - of the servant - w-willingly given - you will - revive - your master."

He stretched his right hand out in front of him - the hand with the missing finger. He gripped the dagger very tightly in his left hand and swung it upward.

Harry realized what Pettigrew was about to do a second before it happened — he closed his eyes as tightly as he could, but he could not block the scream that pierced the night, that went through Harry as though he had been stabbed with the dagger too. He heard something fall to the ground, heard Pettigrew's anguished panting, then a sickening splash, as something was dropped into the cauldron.

Harry couldn't stand to look… but the potion had turned a burning red; the light of it shone through Harry's closed eyelids…

Pettigrew was gasping and moaning with agony. Not until Harry felt Pettigrew's anguished breath on his face did he realize that Pettigrew was right in front of him, though he should have known.

“Blood of the enemy… forcibly taken… you will… resurrect your foe.”

Opening his eyes, Harry watched as the shining silver dagger in Pettigrew’s remaining hand shook. There was nothing he could do to prevent it as he was tied too tightly. All he could do was watch as its point penetrated the crook of his right arm and blood seeped down the sleeve of his shirt, leaving a trail that was dark against the emerald green and visible through the small rips his trip through the hedge had caused. Pettigrew, still panting with pain, rumbled in his pocket for a glass vial and held it to Harry's cut, so that a dribble of blood fell into it.

He staggered back to the cauldron with Harry’s blood. He poured it inside. The liquid within turned, instantly, a blinding white. Pettigrew, his job done, dropped to his knees beside the cauldron, then slumped sideways and lay on the ground, cradling the bleeding stump of his arm, gasping and sobbing.

The cauldron was simmering, sending its diamond sparks in all directions, so blindingly bright that it turned all else to velvety blackness. Nothing happened…

And then, suddenly, the sparks emanating from the cauldron were extinguished. A surge of white steam billowed thickly from the cauldron instead, obliterating everything in front of Harry, so that he couldn't see Pettigrew or Cedric or anything but vapor hanging in the air…

All through this, Harry knew that, no matter how much he wished it would drown, the thing would succeed. The ritual of flesh, blood, and bone would succeed in bringing Voldemort back.

Through the mist in front of him, he saw, with an icy surge of terror, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rising slowly from inside the cauldron.

Not even knowing this would happen could prepare Harry for the sight, for realizing it was true.

"Robe me," said the high, cold voice from behind the steam, and Pettigrew, sobbing and moaning, still cradling his mutilated arm, scrambled to pick up the black robes from the ground, got to his feet, reached up, and pulled them one handed over his master's head.

The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry… and Harry stared back into the face that he had only seen as handsome and young, never like this, yet this _monster_ had been his motivation for two years . Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils…

Lord Voldemort, also known as Tom Marvolo Riddle, had risen again.

…

When Graham began to repeat what Pettigrew was saying, Tracey heard his voice shake. It was terrifying just to read it, and this young boy, this brave Slytherin doing something for Harry, was repeating it aloud.

Reading and then hearing about Pettigrew screaming, having obviously cut off his own hand, was disgusting, and Tracey wrapped her arms around Graham as his voice cracked.

Soon, Maya joined the group, her own arms joining Tracey’s around her brother, and Tracey knew that she had been worried for him as well as Harry.

Behind her, Tracey could hear teachers talking as Dumbledore asked them to go towards the maze to be with the other Champions. They must have complied as the talking stopped and Tracey felt as if the box wasn’t so crowded as before.

Turning for only a quick glance, Tracey had seen only Professor Dumbledore left in the teacher’s box with Graham, Maya, and Susan; the other commentators had left to comfort Viktor and Fleur when they had left the maze.

It was painful and terrifying to read that blood had been taken from Harry as the parchment said he winced as a knife tip was put into the crook of his arm.

Tracey had no idea how he was going to get out of this, but she was praying to Merlin, God, and anyone else who was willing to listen that Harry would get out of this alive and whole.

…

Albus Dumbledore was beyond worried; he was terrified. Of course, he didn’t show this, but he certainly felt it.

Harry Potter was watching Lord Voldemort regain a body, and there was nothing he, Albus Dumbledore, could do about it, even if he _did_ know where his student was. Sending anyone to that site was almost literally asking for death. No one would make it out of there alive without pure luck.

This thought didn’t really help Dumbledore feel better as he was hoping for Harry to survive, but he was also being truthful to himself.

No, unfortunately, Harry Potter was on his own this time. There was nothing Albus Dumbledore could do.

…

Ginny was worried out of her mind, but she also had to keep the others calm by pretending to be less worried than they were. Luckily, years of dealing with the twins as well as being a prankster and learning Occlumency had helped her ability to keep mask her emotions and not let others see her fear.

“This is bad, this is really bad,” Theo was muttering from his seat next to Ginny, which had been Tracey’s until she went to the teachers’ box and Theo took it.

“It is,” Ginny agreed quietly, and they met each other’s eyes, brown looking into brown as they came to an understanding.

“How is Harry going to make it out of this one this time?” Astoria was asking worriedly.

“I dunno, Tori, but he’ll make it,” Daphne said softly, hugging her sister and using the nickname Astoria let very few use.

Looking around the crowd, Ginny saw something that she had never noticed before: Over half the crowd was worried beyond belief for Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived.

No, she corrected herself, they were worried for Harry Potter, the Slytherin, the leader of leaders, the one uniting the Houses, the one who was their friend or at least kind to them.

She didn’t think even Harry had realized how much of the school he had converted.

Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hogwarts alike were worried. Slytherins, Hufflepuffs, Gryffindors, and Ravenclaws were all worried. First, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and even some seventh years from all four Houses were worried.

In four years Harry had changed Hogwarts, and now they were all waiting to see if he could survive to finish what most hoped would become his legacy at Hogwarts: To become known as the one who had stopped the feud and united the Houses of Hogwarts together.

Even worse for Ginny, though, was the idea of her boyfriend dying. She might be young at only thirteen, but Ginny knew that Harry was the one for her. He would be the only person to ever understand her completely as no one else had been so affected by Tom Riddle, especially now that he had to deal with all of this.

If he died, Ginny knew part of her would die as well, because deep in her heart, in a part of her that she still couldn’t reach with her mind, she loved Harry like she loved no one else.

He couldn’t die; he just couldn’t.


	30. Chapter Thirty

Voldemort looked away from Harry and began examining his own body. His hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cats, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness. He held up his hands and flexed the fingers, his expression rapt and exultant.

He completely ignored Pettigrew, who lay twitching and bleeding on the ground, and the great snake, which had slithered back into sight and was circling Harry again, hissing no words. Voldemort slipped one of those unnaturally long-fingered hands into a deep pocket and drew out a wand. He caressed it gently too; and then he raised it, and pointed it at Pettigrew, who was lifted off the ground and thrown against the headstone where Harry was tied; he fell to the foot of it and lay there, crumpled up and crying.  
  
Voldemort turned his scarlet eyes upon Harry, laughing a high, cold, mirthless laugh.  
  
Harry kept his face blank even as he fought back the slight pain in his scar and the emotions that were whirling around in his mind from everything that had happened since he had entered the maze. His Occlumency training was the only thing stopping him from giving away everything he felt to Voldemort, and he knew it, so Harry put extra effort into his shield.  
  
Of course, that weird shivering of his soul wasn’t helping…  
  
Blinking once to show his shock, Harry tried to figure out what was making him feel like that. Moving his eyes down again, Harry saw the snake, and that was when it clicked.  
  
The snake was a Horcrux.  
  
"My Lord…" Pettigrew choked, "my Lord… you promised… you did promise…" Harry looked up and saw that Pettigrew had wrapped his now blood-stained robes around his stump of a wrist.  
  
"Hold out your arm," said Voldemort lazily.  
  
"Oh Master… thank you, Master…"  
  
He extended the bleeding stump, but Voldemort laughed again. Harry could tell that, if Voldemort was going to do something to help Pettigrew, he would only do it after making Pettigrew realize who had the power of the two and also what Voldemort could do to him if he wished. This was Voldemort’s way of showing his power over one of his servants, it seemed.  
  
"The other arm, Wormtail."  
  
"Master, please… please…"  
  
Voldemort bent down and pulled out Pettigrew's left arm; he forced the sleeve of Pettigrew's robes up past his elbow, and Harry saw something upon the skin there, something like a vivid red tattoo - a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth - the image that had appeared in the sky at the Quidditch World Cup: the Dark Mark. Voldemort examined it carefully, ignoring Pettigrew's uncontrollable weeping.  
  
"It is back," he said softly, "they will all have noticed it… and now, we shall see… now we shall know…"  
  
He pressed his long white forefinger to the brand on Pettigrew's arm.  
  
The scar on Harry’s forehead seared with a sharp pain again, though he hid it well, and Pettigrew let out a fresh howl; Voldemort removed his fingers from Pettigrew's mark, and Harry saw that it had turned jet black. He had an odd feeling that Voldemort had just sent out a signal to all, which meant Professor Snape would either be coming or playing his part of a spy well by coming late with his excuses.  
  
A look of cruel satisfaction on his face, Voldemort straightened up, threw back his head, and stared around at the dark graveyard.  
  
"How many will be brave enough to return when they feel it?" he whispered, his gleaming red eyes fixed upon the stars. "And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?"  
  
He began to pace up and down before Harry and Pettigrew, eyes sweeping the graveyard all the while. After a minute or so, he looked down at Harry again, a cruel smile twisting his snakelike face.  
  
“Harry Potter, we meet at last,” he hissed, though in English, not in Parseltongue, despite how at home it would seem with his snake-like face. A white hand reached forward and ripped out the rag in Harry’s mouth, allowing him to breathe properly and speak if he wished.  
  
“You aren’t what I was expecting,” he said softly, crimson eyes looking Harry over, taking care to notice the color of his clothes. “Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, a Slytherin!” Voldemort jeered. “No one was expecting that, I’d wager.”  
  
“No, they weren’t,” Harry said softly, a grin forming on his lips as he remembered the shock after his Sorting. He knew this wasn’t the time to be reminiscing, but he knew that he had to act like a Slytherin right now, at least until he could get away.  
  
“From what I’ve heard, you’re a very ambitious boy,” Voldemort hissed. “Doing the unthinkable by changing Hogwarts, I hear.”  
  
Instead of answering, Harry kept his face blank. He knew that explaining about not only the Houses being united but also the different ancestry would turn Voldemort against him in an instant, bringing his death before he could fight to get away with it.  
  
“You like power, Harry, that much is obvious,” Voldemort said, a small smile on his lips. Harry thought it only made him look freakier than before, but he said and gave away nothing.  
  
“Join me, and you can have power, Harry,” Voldemort said in a soft voice, and Harry realized what he was trying to do. If Harry was on Voldemort’s side as a trusted servant, the Prophecy would never happen, and Voldemort would get whatever talents Harry might have.  
  
“Together we could do much,” Voldemort continued. “Together we could bring your parents back.”  
  
Deep down, Harry knew that he wanted his parents back, he wanted to get to know them for himself instead of through others, but even deeper down, just below that wish, all Harry could see was the truth: They were gone and there was no way to truly bring them back. No matter how much he wished he could have his parents, Harry knew that they were dead and could only watch over him now.  
  
“Only with the darkest of Magics,” Harry whispered, his eyes on the snake slowly circling him. “The snake is a Horcrux,” he muttered under his breath, barely moving his lips as he hoped to whomever was watching over him that Tracey was there to erase the line after reading it and that Dumbledore hadn’t seen it.  
  
“Yes, well, think on my offer to join my family as the rest of it returns,” Voldemort said, spinning around as he gestured up into the air. Around them, the air was suddenly full of the swishing of cloaks. Between graves, behind the yew tree, in every shadowy space, wizards were Apparating. All of them were hooded and masked. And one by one they moved forward… slowly, cautiously, as though they could hardly believe their eyes. Voldemort stood in silence, waiting for them. Then one of the Death Eaters fell to his knees, crawled toward Voldemort and kissed the hem of his black robes.  
  
"Master… Master," he murmured.  
  
The Death Eaters behind him did the same; each of them approaching Voldemort on his knees and kissing his robes, before backing away and standing up, forming a silent circle, which enclosed Tom Riddle's grave, Harry, Voldemort, and the sobbing and twitching heap that was Pettigrew. Yet they left gaps in the circle, as though waiting for more people. Voldemort, however, did not seem to expect more. He looked around at the hooded faces, and the circle appeared to shiver, the clearing very quiet, almost silent, as everyone waited.

…

“He’s back,” Tracey murmured under her breath, staring at the parchment that Graham was holding out on the table in front of him, rolling it up almost constantly to keep up with the ink that was charmed into it as it wrote.  
  
“We’re in trouble,” Maya agreed softly, nodding as she read over Graham’s other shoulder.  
  
All Tracey could do was watch the words and listen to Graham’s voice as Lord Voldemort talked about Harry’s being a Slytherin and how he had a wish for power. Those who knew Harry understood that he did want power, he did want the Houses united, but they also knew that Harry could understand when he had too much power or when he was abusing it in ways he didn’t need to use it at the time. Harry’s good heart clashed with his ambition, keeping it in check and making him into the kind of leader that even the most noble were willing to follow, and it wasn’t just because of his power.  
  
“And Riddle is now offering to…” Graham hesitated as he read the line, and Tracey understood, but he went on after only a moment. “He’s offering to help Harry bring his parents back.”  
  
To most in the audience who didn’t realize that Tom Riddle was Lord Voldemort but understood that he was a Dark Wizard, they were mainly worried because they didn’t think _anyone_ would be able to say no to getting loved ones back from the dead. Unfortunately, those who did know who he was and knew Harry, as all of those people were in the same category in most cases, they knew that Harry would be fighting internally about having his parents back by joining their murderer or staying true to himself.  
  
Tracey knew what he would choose, and she knew it would eat him up inside as she read him muttering about Dark Magic.  
  
Looking around, Tracey saw that Dumbledore was looking at the crowd, more looking through them then at them as he thought. When she turned back and saw the line about Harry mentioning the snake was a Horcrux appear, she grabbed Graham’s shoulder so tightly that he glanced at her in shock as her right hand dove into her robes and twisted her wand, muttering a spell so quietly that even she couldn’t hear it.  
  
When they looked at the parchment again, the line was gone, only Tracey understanding what it meant.  
  
“Don’t say a word about it,” she muttered as she moved her head to be between Maya and Graham’s ears. “That was for me and me alone. Never mention the word aloud to anyone but me and Harry.”  
  
Both nodded as Graham went back to reading what Tom Riddle was saying.  
  
Breathing a light sigh of relief, Tracey relaxed the muscles that had tensed during those few moments, leaving only the tension from the thought of Harry being around Voldemort, which was, admittedly, a lot, in her body.  
  
She had no idea how Harry knew the snake was a Horcrux, but he did, and that meant he would try to destroy it as long as killing the snake didn’t mean he would die in the process. Even if he didn’t succeed, they would know where to find the fifth Horcrux, which was a better position than they had been before.  
  
Now all she could do was listen as the Death Eaters arrived and watch Draco as he stiffened, knowing his father would be there. All there was left to do was wait and hope Harry would pull off a miracle by escaping.

…

"Welcome, Death Eaters," Voldemort said quietly. "Thirteen years… thirteen years since last we met. Yet you answer my call as though it were yesterday, we are still united under the Dark Mark, then! Or are we?"  
  
He put back his terrible face and sniffed, his slit-like nostrils widening. Harry wasn’t sure what to think of it.  
  
"I smell guilt," he said. "There is a stench or guilt upon the air."  
  
A second shiver ran around the circle, as though each member of it longed, but did not dare to step back from him.  
  
"I see you all, whole and healthy, with your powers intact - such prompt appearances! And I ask myself… why did this band of wizards never come to the aid of their master, to whom they swore eternal loyalty?"  
  
No one spoke. No one moved except Pettigrew, who was upon the ground, still sobbing over his bleeding arm, no one except for Harry.  
  
In his spot tied to the gravestone, Harry was moving his hands around under the ropes that tied him so tightly to it, moving centimeter by centimeter as he made his way to the closest slits in his clothes on each leg. Finally, as Voldemort spoke, he grasped a handle in his left hand just as his right fingers lightly touched another. Internally, he grinned as he felt the handles for the small mark that was in the shape of a basilisk fang he had carved into these two specific goblin-made knives, the only two that had it.  
  
If either of these knives got stuck in the snake circling him, he knew she would die as they both had basilisk venom in them. Sebae had put it in each knife one of the few times he had gone down to visit her without Ginny, knowing that there might be a day he needed the venom in a weapon and not wanting the others to realize that it was possible. Right now, he was glad he had done it as the knives might both save his life and kill a Horcrux.  
  
"And I answer myself," whispered Voldemort, "they must have believed me broken, they thought I was gone. They slipped back among my enemies, and they pleaded innocence, and ignorance, and bewitchment…  
  
"And then I ask myself, but how could they have believed I would not rise again? They, who knew the steps I took, long ago, to guard myself against mortal death? They, who had seen proofs of the immensity of my power in the times when I was mightier than any wizard living?  
  
"And I answer myself, perhaps they believed a still greater power could exist, one that could vanquish even Lord Voldemort… perhaps they now pay allegiance to another… perhaps that champion of commoners, of Mudbloods and Muggles, Albus Dumbledore?"  
  
At the mention of Dumbledore's name, the members of the circle stirred, and some muttered and shook their heads. Voldemort ignored them. Harry ignored them as well as he thought about Voldemort’s words and realized they all pointed to one thing: His Horcruxes. Lord Voldemort didn’t realize four were gone, destroyed, and hopefully he wouldn’t know until it was too late to protect the rest.  
  
"It is a disappointment to me… I confess myself disappointed…"  
  
One of the men suddenly flung himself forward, breaking the circle. Trembling from head to foot, he collapsed at Voldemort's feet.  
  
"Master!" he shrieked, "Master, forgive me! Forgive us all!"  
  
Voldemort began to laugh as Harry shook his head at the man’s stupidity; Voldemort would do anything _but_ forgive them, especially this man. Voldemort raised his wand.  
  
“ _Crucio_!”  
  
The Death Eater on the ground writhed and shrieked; Harry was sure the sound must carry to the houses around. Voldemort raised his wand. The tortured Death Eater lay flat upon the ground, gasping.  
  
"Get up, Avery," Voldemort said softly. "Stand up. You ask for forgiveness? I do not forgive. I do not forget. Thirteen long years… I want thirteen years' repayment before I forgive you. Wormtail here has paid some of his debt already, have you not, Wormtail?"  
  
He looked down at Pettigrew, who continued to sob.  
  
"You returned to me, not out of loyalty, but out of fear of your old friends. You deserve this pain, Wormtail. You know that, don't you?"  
  
"Yes, Master," Pettigrew moaned, "please. Master… please…"  
  
"Yet you helped return me to my body," said Voldemort coolly, watching Pettigrew sob on the ground. "Worthless and traitorous as you are, you helped me… and Lord Voldemort rewards his helpers…" Harry disagreed, thinking that Pettigrew earned no mercy, but he said nothing as he tried not to glare at the stupid rat that had betrayed his parents and led to their deaths.  
  
Voldemort raised his wand again and whirled it through the air. A streak of what looked like molten silver hung shining in the wand's wake. Momentarily shapeless, it writhed and then formed itself into a gleaming replica of a human hand, bright as moonlight, which soared downward and fixed itself upon Pettigrew’s bleeding wrist.  
  
Pettigrew’s sobbing stopped abruptly. His breathing harsh and ragged, he raised his head and stared in disbelief at the silver hand, now attached seamlessly to his arm, as though he were wearing a dazzling glove. He flexed the shining fingers, then, trembling, picked up a small twig on the ground and crushed it into powder.  
  
"My Lord," he whispered. "Master… it is beautiful… thank you… thank you…"  
  
He scrambled forward on his knees and kissed the hem of Voldemort's robes.  
  
"May your loyalty never waver again, Wormtail," said Voldemort. Harry smirked ever-so-slightly as he heard that, knowing there was a curse on that hand that would most likely kill Pettigrew if his loyalty wavered.  
  
"No, my Lord… never, my Lord…"  
  
Pettigrew stood up and took his place in the circle, staring at his powerful new hand, his face still shining with tears. Voldemort now approached the man on Pettigrew's right.  
  
"Lucius, my slippery friend," he whispered, halting before him. "I am told that you have not renounced the old ways, though to the world you present a respectable face. You are still ready to take the lead in a spot of Muggle-torture, I believe? Yet you never tried to find me, Lucius… Your exploits at the Quidditch World Cup were fun, I daresay… but might not your energies have been better directed toward finding and aiding your master?"  
  
Harry had to hold in a growl as he listened to what Draco’s father had done despite knowing about it at the time. It was tough to hold a blank face, but Harry managed it, his Occlumency only slightly helping right now as everything continued to happen around him.  
  
"My Lord, I was constantly on the alert," Lucius Malfoy's voice said swiftly from beneath the hood. "Had there been any sign from you, any whisper of your whereabouts, I would have been at your side immediately, nothing could have prevented me —" Harry grimaced internally, knowing what his father’s words would be doing to Draco as his friend held up his own mask and listened to Graham’s voice read it aloud.  
  
"And yet you ran from my Mark, when a faithful Death Eater sent it into the sky last summer?" Voldemort said lazily, and Mr. Malfoy stopped talking abruptly. "Yes, I know all about that, Lucius… You have disappointed me… I expect more faithful service in the future."  
  
"Of course, my Lord, of course… You are merciful, thank you…"  
  
Voldemort moved on, and stopped, staring at the space - large enough for two people - that separated Malfoy and the next man.  
  
"The Lestranges should stand here," Voldemort said quietly.  
  
"But they are entombed in Azkaban. They were faithful. They went to Azkaban rather than renounce me… When Azkaban is broken open, the Lestranges will be honored beyond their dreams. The Dementors will join us… they are our natural allies… we will recall the banished giants… I shall have all my devoted servants returned to me, and an army of creatures whom all fear…"  
  
He walked on. Some of the Death Eaters he passed in silence, but he paused before others and spoke to them.  
  
"Macnair… destroying dangerous beasts for the Ministry of Magic now, Wormtail tells me? You shall have better victims than that soon, Macnair. Lord Voldemort will provide…"  
  
"Thank you, Master… thank you," Macnair murmured.  
  
"And here" - Voldemort moved on to the two largest hooded figures - "we have Crabbe… you will do better this time, will you not, Crabbe? And you, Goyle?"  
  
They bowed clumsily, muttering dully.  
  
"Yes, Master…"  
  
"We will, Master…"  
  
"The same goes for you, Nott," Voldemort said quietly as he walked past a stooped figure in Mr. Goyle’s shadow.  
  
"My Lord, I prostrate myself before you, I am your most faithful -"  
  
"That will do," Voldemort said. Harry was frowning internally, realizing that he would have to do something to help Theo’s living situation now that Voldemort was back. In fact, he would have to look into talking to Draco about that as well…  
  
Voldemort had reached the largest gap of all, and he stood surveying it with his blank, red eyes, as though he could see people standing there.  
  
"And here we have six missing Death Eaters… three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to return… he will pay. One, who I believe has left me forever… he will be killed, of course… and one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already reentered my service."  
  
Harry knew one of those was Snape, and another was probably Karkaroff, but the third worried him greatly as he didn’t know who he could be, and if he was already in service… It meant _he_ was the one to put Harry’s name in the Goblet of Fire.  
  
The Death Eaters stirred, and Harry saw their eyes dart sideways at one another through their masks.  
  
"He is at Hogwarts, that faithful servant, and it was through his efforts that our young friend arrived here tonight…”  
  
“Tracey, find the Death Eater, please,” Harry muttered under his breath as all eyes began to turn to him. “Get the others to figure it out. Use the Maps to find someone who shouldn’t be there. Remember, some people have the same names as their parents like Riddle does…”  
  
"Yes," Voldemort said, a grin curling his lipless mouth as the eyes of the circle flashed in Harry's direction. "Harry Potter has kindly joined us for my rebirthing party. One might go so far as to call him my guest of honor." Harry knew that, in some way, he was the guest of honor. Voldemort wanted him on his side, and that meant he was a guest until he announced his decision.  
  
“So, Harry, have you made a decision?” Voldemort asked, turning to face the young Slytherin whose hands were moving as his knives had finally escaped their sheathes.  
  
“Become your servant, help you kill Muggles and Muggle-borns, and just make you more powerful?” Harry asked, pretending to be curious as he slowly moved the knives, cutting into the ropes around him. He could tell that Voldemort didn’t like his wording, but that was the whole point.  
  
“I’m so very sorry, Tom Riddle, but I’m going to have to decline,” Harry said, yanking his arms forward to finish the cutting of the ropes around him before he shot forward and to the side, shocking everyone.  
  
Rushing forward, Harry kept his knives in his hands as he tried to get to his wand.  
  
Sliding on the ground, Harry ended up near Cedric’s body as he grabbed his wand and held it up, pointed straight at Voldemort, who was pointing his own wand at Harry through his shock.  
  
Putting one knife away, Harry kept the other in his off hand, standing up slowly as his mind spun. Now all he had to do was figure out how to get out of there.

…

Theo caught Draco’s eye as they realized the Death Eaters had arrived. Both knew that their fathers would be among the ranks, and their names were most likely going to be dragged into the midst by more than one person, meaning everyone would be looking at them.  
  
They came to a silent agreement to act as if they were hearing nothing even as every word filled their entire being with the truths of their fathers, truths they might not have disliked if it hadn’t been for Harry.  
  
Of course, the words their fathers spoke towards Lord Voldemort disgusted Theo even as the reactions around the audience were a mixture of shock as they realized Tom Riddle was alive, fear of the Dark Lord, amazement that these people they had considered good were really Death Eaters, and some disgust at the kissing up that the Death Eaters were doing. Through all of this, people kept turning to look at the children of the men mentioned by Graham, though Theo recognized the apology in the boy’s voice as he was forced to read the names of his and Draco’s fathers.  
  
When Voldemort spoke of a Death Eater at Hogwarts, everyone was shocked.  
  
Theo turned to Ginny, who had already taken out her red Journal and was searching the Map for a name that didn’t belong around the maze, looking up and down over and over to check faces.  
  
“Theo,” she murmured as he was next to her after taking Tracey’s spot, “look.”  
  
Theo looked down at her Journal and saw where she was pointing. Alastor Moody was in his office, yet in front of them was their professor. The dot that was in the spot of Moody said Bartemius Crouch.  
  
Looking up, Theo thought hard about rumors going around the school in the past month or so, remembering one about Barty Crouch coming to the school and acting odd until Professor Moody took him to his office; no one had seen the man since. Of course, that didn’t really help them as Theo had heard about how law-abiding Crouch was, so this made no sense.  
  
_Tracey: Ginny, Theo, Harry said to look for the Death Eater and to remember that some people share names. Don’t know why he said that, but it might be because Purebloods like using the same name over, so a Death Eater might share the name of the father._  
  
Seeing that message, Theo realized what was going on.  
  
“Ginny, Moody in front of us isn’t the actual Crouch, but he’s most likely his son,” Theo whispered urgently to Ginny, passing her back her Journal that she quickly put away.  
  
“What should we do?” she asked, and Theo just grinned slightly as he turned around and gestured to Tracey’s father, who was an Auror.  
  
“Professor Moody is the Death Eater in disguise by Polyjuice Potion,” he whispered in the man’s ear. “The real Moody is inside his office.”  
  
Samuel sat up and nodded once, sharply, before quickly getting up and moving towards Madam Bones, who was watching the Task in a different area of the stadium with the other Ministry employees important enough to be permitted to watch it.  
  
Theo had a slight grin on his face as he watched them talk in quiet, sharp whispers, obviously discussing what to do. It wasn’t their problem anymore.  
  
“Harry has just declined the offer!” Graham called out to the crowd, quieting them as they remembered there was more happening. “What is he — oh Merlin! Harry cut his way out of the ropes with a knife, and it seems he’s just gotten his wand back and has it pointed at the Dark Lord himself!”  
  
Theo grinned darkly as he knew Harry was going to have a tough time getting away if he had to duel Voldemort along with all the Death Eaters, but his friend wasn’t going to give up without a fight if it meant he could survive to fight another day. Harry was willing to retreat, but in the future, Harry would fight to continue living and to get his chance at life .

…

“Impressive,” Voldemort said softly as he took in Harry’s move closely, the Death Eaters surrounding them with their drawn wands pointed at Harry.  
  
“It seems young Harry here would rather duel me than join me…” Voldemort mused, raising a hand to inform the Death Eaters to stand down as he tilted his head to the side, studying Harry. “Not what I expected from a young Slytherin, but this shall be… interesting.”  
  
“Are you going to fight me yourself or hide behind your servants?” Harry challenged, knowing he had to get Voldemort to fight alone or he’d lose just because he was outnumbered.  
  
“I believe they can watch me defeat the great Harry Potter,” Voldemort whispered softly, and Harry smiled internally as the Death Eaters backed down, recognizing the order intermixed with the statement.  
  
“ _Nagini, attack him from behind_ ,” Voldemort hissed in Parseltongue quietly, and Harry immediately knew that Nagini was the Horcrux.  
  
“ _Don’t_!” Harry hissed sharply, surprising most as they hadn’t heard Parseltongue from anyone besides Voldemort before, and it seemed Pettigrew hadn’t known the little detail to tell Voldemort.  
  
“ _You speak it_?” Voldemort hissed sharply, and Harry only allowed the right side of his mouth to twitch upwards for a moment before taking advantage of his distraction.  
  
“ _Diffindo_ ,” he whispered softly, watching as the yellow spell raced towards Voldemort and was absorbed by the shield the Dark Lord quickly raised.  
  
“So you wish to play, Potter?” he asked. “Let’s play. _Crucio_!”  
  
Harry tried to dodge the red spell, but a second, silent one hit him, and Harry was screaming in pain. It was pain beyond anything Harry had ever experienced; his very bones were on fire; his head was surely splitting along his scar; his eyes were rolling madly in his head; he wanted it to end… to black out… to die…  
  
Finally the curse was lifted, and Harry rolled to the side before he could be hit again, rising onto shaky legs as he tried to shake off the aftereffects of the Cruciatus.  
  
Moving even as his body shook, Harry moved behind a tall gravestone, leaning against it to gather himself for a moment before gripping his wand more tightly and moving out, ducking down.  
  
“ _Incendio_!” he called, aiming the wand at the grass in front of the Death Eaters behind Voldemort, not at the thing himself. While they were distracted, Harry muttered, “ _Stupefy, Impedimenta, Stupefy, Protego_.”  
  
The Stunners and Impedimenta Curse were reflected by Voldemort’s shield, but they hit the Death Eaters that were trying to put out the fire even as Harry’s shield absorbed the Cutting Curse aimed at his head.  
  
“You know how to duel,” Voldemort commented as he aimed his wand again and called out, “ _Avada Kedavra_!”  
  
Harry jumped to the side, hitting the ground before rolling to dodge the Killing Curse so that he could jump to his feet.  
  
Suddenly, he heard a hiss from behind him, and turning quickly, Harry was faced with Nagini. Knowing he had his back to Voldemort, Harry aimed as carefully as he could with only moments to do anything, and he threw the knife in his hand.  
  
Not even waiting to see if he met his mark, Harry dove to the side just as a green light passed where he had been standing, his hand automatically going for one of the other knives on his person.  
  
Voldemort’s scream said it all as Harry turned with a spell on his lips just as the Dark Lord began to mutter the Killing Curse again.  
  
“ _Stupefy_!”  
  
“ _Avada Kedavra_!”  
  
Red met green between the two wands, and Harry’s eyes widened slightly as the beam between the wands turned gold and his wand began to shake. He felt his feet lift from the ground. He and Voldemort were both being raised into the air, their wands still connected by that thread of shimmering golden light. They glided away from the tombstone of Voldemort's father and then came to rest on a patch of ground that was clear and free of graves… The Death Eaters were shouting; they were asking Voldemort for instructions; they were closing in, reforming the circle around Harry and Voldemort some of them drawing their wands —  
  
The golden thread connecting Harry and Voldemort splintered; though the wands remained connected, a thousand more beams arced high over Harry and Voldemort, crisscrossing all around them, until they were enclosed in a golden, dome-shaped web, a cage of light, beyond which the Death Eaters circled like jackals, their cries strangely muffled now…  
  
"Do nothing!" Voldemort shrieked to the Death Eaters, and Harry saw his red eyes wide with astonishment at what was happening, saw him fighting to break the thread of light still connecting his wand with Harry's; Harry held onto his wand more tightly, with both hands, and the golden thread remained unbroken. "Do nothing unless I command you!" Voldemort shouted to the Death Eaters.  
  
And then an unearthly and beautiful sound filled the air… It was coming from every thread of the light-spun web vibrating around Harry and Voldemort. It was a sound Harry recognized, though he had heard it only once before in his life: phoenix song.  
  
It was the sound of hope to Harry… the most beautiful and welcome thing he had ever heard in his life… He felt as though the song were inside him instead of just around him… It was the sound he connected with his friends and family. The sound was telling Harry not to break the connection, but he instinctively knew that already.  
  
No sooner had he thought it, than the thing became much harder to do. His wand began to vibrate more powerfully than ever… and now the beam between him and Voldemort changed too… it was as though large beads of light were sliding up and down the thread connecting the wands - Harry felt his wand give a shudder under his hand as the light beads began to slide slowly and steadily his way… The direction of the beam’s movement was now toward him, from Voldemort, and he felt his wand shudder angrily…  
  
As the closest bead of light moved nearer to Harry’s wand tip, the wood beneath his fingers grew so hot he feared it would burst into flame. The closer that bead moved, the harder Harry's wand vibrated; he was sure his wand would not survive contact with it; it felt as though it was about to shatter under his fingers —  
  
He concentrated every last particle of his mind upon forcing the bead back toward Voldemort, his ears full of phoenix song, his eyes furious, fixed… and slowly, very slowly, the beads quivered to a halt, and then, just as slowly, they began to move the other way… and it was Voldemort's wand that was vibrating extra-hard now… Voldemort who looked astonished, and almost fearful…  
  
Harry was concentrating on the bead and sending it back at Voldemort, but he also knew that, somewhere in the back of his mind, he was thinking of his family, his friends, the other students from all three schools. Deep down, he was fighting for them, and he was fighting for Cedric, to be sure he could stop this from happening longer than it had to.  
  
One of the beads of light was quivering, inches from the tip of Voldemort’s wand. Harry didn't understand what it might achieve… but he now concentrated as he had never done in his life on forcing that bead of light right back into Voldemort s wand… and slowly… very slowly… it moved along the golden thread… it trembled for a moment… and then it connected…  
  
At once, Voldemort’s wand began to emit echoing screams of pain… then — Voldemort's red eyes widened with shock — a dense, smoky hand flew out of the tip of it and vanished… the ghost of the hand he had made Pettigrew… more shouts of pain… and then something much larger began to blossom from Voldemort’s wand tip, a great, grayish something, that looked as though it were made of the solidest, densest smoke… It was a head… now a chest and arms… the torso of Cedric Diggory.  
  
If ever Harry might have released his wand from shock, it would have been then, but instinct kept him clutching his wand tightly, so that the thread of golden light remained unbroken, even though the thick gray ghost of Cedric Diggory (was it a ghost? it looked so solid) emerged in its entirety from the end of Voldemort s wand, as though it were squeezing itself out of a very narrow tunnel… and this shade of Cedric stood up, and looked up and down the golden thread of light, and spoke.  
  
"Hold on, Harry," it said. “More people are coming.” Harry nodded slightly, not expecting Cedric to say anything more, but the thing spoke again in Cedric’s voice. “Harry, what happened here wasn’t your fault. If I had made the suggestion, the same thing would have happened; neither of us knew this was coming. Please, don’t blame yourself.”  
  
There was nothing Harry could say to Cedric, but deep down, his words had calmed Harry slightly, though he knew he would forever be changed by this evening.  
  
Harry looked at Voldemort… his wide red eyes were still shocked… he had no more expected this than Harry had… and, very dimly Harry heard the frightened yells of the Death Eaters, prowling around the edges of the golden dome… More screams of pain from the wand… and then something else emerged from its tip… the dense shadow of a second head, quickly followed by arms and torso… an old man Harry had seen only in a dream was now pushing himself out of the end of the wand just as Cedric had done… and his ghost, or his shadow, or whatever it was, fell next to Cedric's, and surveyed Harry and Voldemort, and the golden web, and the connected wands, with mild surprise, leaning on his walking stick…  
  
"He was a real wizard, then?" the old man said, his eyes on Voldemort. "Killed me, that one did… You fight him, boy…"  
  
But already, yet another head was emerging… and this head, gray as a smoky statue, was a woman's… Harry, both arms shaking now as he fought to keep his wand still, saw her drop to the ground and straighten up like the others, staring…  
  
The shadow of a woman surveyed the battle before her with wide eyes.  
  
"Don't let go, now!" she cried, and her voice echoed like Cedric’s as though from very far away. "Don't let him get you, Harry — don't let go!"  
  
She and the other two shadowy figures began to pace around the inner walls of the golden web, while the Death Eaters flitted around the outside of it… and Voldemort's dead victims whispered as they circled the duelers, whispered words of encouragement to Harry, and hissed words Harry couldn't hear to Voldemort. And now another head was emerging from the tip of Voldemort’s wand… and Harry knew when he saw it who it would be… he knew, as though he had expected it from the moment when Cedric had appeared from the wand… knew, because the woman appearing was one of the ones he'd thought of more than any other tonight…  
  
A young woman with long hair, the smoky, shadowy form of Lily Potter blossomed from the end of Voldemort's wand, fell to the ground, and straightened. She walked close to Harry, looking down at him, and she spoke in the same distant, echoing voice as the others, but quietly, so that Voldemort, his face now livid with fear as his victims prowled around him, could not hear…  
  
"Your father's coming…" she said quietly. “He wants to see you… it will be all right… hold on…"  
  
And he came… first his head, then his body… The smoky shadow of a tall man with untidy hair fell to the ground as the first woman had done, straightened up, and looked at him… and Harry, his arms shaking madly now, looked back into the ghostly face of his father.  
  
"When the connection is broken, we will linger for only moments… but we will give you time… you must get to the Portkey, it will return you to Hogwarts… do you understand, Harry?" they both whispered into his ears, almost in sync as Harry tried to take in the sight of his parents for the first time that he could remember outside of pictures.  
  
"Yes," Harry gasped, fighting now to keep a hold on his wand, which was slipping and sliding beneath his fingers.  
  
"Harry…" the figure of Cedric whispered, "take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my parents…"  
  
"I will," Harry said, his face screwed up with the effort of holding the wand.  
  
“We’re so proud of you,” his mother said quickly, and Harry felt pride fill him even as he knew they were speaking fast as there was not much time left. “Even as a Slytherin, we’re proud of you, what you’re doing, and what you stand for.”  
  
“Continue what you’re doing and beat this bastard,” his father added, and Harry nodded a bit, his jaw painful from the concentration the connection needed.  
  
"Do it now," his father's voice then whispered, his mother adding it in again quietly, "be ready to run… do it now…"  
  
He didn't think he could have held on for another moment anyway — he pulled his wand upward with an almighty wrench, and the golden thread broke; the cage of light vanished, the phoenix song died — but the shadowy figures of Voldemort's victims did not disappear — they were closing in upon Voldemort, shielding Harry from his gaze —  
  
And Harry ran as he had never run in his life, knocking two stunned Death Eaters aside as he passed, he zigzagged behind headstones, feeling their curses following him, hearing them hit the headstones — he was dodging curses and graves, pelting toward Cedric's body, his whole being concentrated on what he had to do —  
  
"Stun him!" he heard Voldemort scream.  
  
Ten feet from Cedric, Harry dived behind a marble angel to avoid the jets of red light and saw the tip of its wing shatter as the spells hit it. Gripping his wand more tightly, he dashed out from behind the angel —  
  
" _Impedimenta_!" he bellowed, pointing his wand wildly over his shoulder at the Death Eaters running at him.  
  
From a muffled yell, he thought he had stopped at least one of them, but there was no time to stop and look; he jumped over the cup and dived as he heard more wand blasts behind him; more jets of light flew over his head as he fell, stretching out his hand to grab Cedric's arm…  
  
"Stand aside! I will kill him! He is mine!" Voldemort shrieked. Harry's hand had closed on Cedric's wrist; one tombstone stood between him and Voldemort, but Cedric was too heavy to carry, and the cup was out of reach —  
  
Voldemort's red eyes flamed in the darkness. Harry saw his mouth curl into a smile, saw him raise his wand. Right by his feet was a dead snake, a knife still in the head, and Harry knew that Horcrux was gone, but Voldemort would never know it had been destroyed because it was a Horcrux.  
  
" _Accio_!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the Triwizard Cup. It flew into the air and soared toward him. Harry caught it by the handle —  
  
He heard Voldemort s scream of fury at the same moment that he felt the jerk behind his navel that meant the Portkey had worked — it was speeding him away in a whirl of wind and color, and Cedric along with him… They were going back.

…

Ginny’s mind was mostly on Harry, understandably, as he dueled, but she was also watching as Madam Bones and Samuel got their wands out and began discussing how to take out a man with an eye that allowed him to see out of the back of his head. All she could hope was that they got it done properly.  
  
Suddenly, so unexpectedly that not even Ginny, who had been expecting it, could react, a Stunner hit Moody in the back. Samuel and Madam Bones were out of the stands and down at the man, kicking away the wand and tying him up before grabbing the flask in his pocket, smelling it before making faces.  
  
It seemed she and Theo had been correct; Moody was the imposter.  
  
Grimacing at the thought of having a Death Eater as a teacher for the entire year, Ginny listened to Graham, who had started commenting with a curious sound in his voice.  
  
“Harry used _Stupefy_ and Riddle _Avada Kedavra_ , and now… Their wands are connecting? They’re being lifted off their feet and gold beads are going between their wands on a gold beam of light. It seems it’s a contest of wills that Harry is winning as the bead of light closest to Riddle hits his wand.”  
  
Graham couldn’t get excited anymore, not with how dark the topics were, and it saddened Ginny to hear it, but at least he was learning it secondhand rather than first.  
  
“Oh Merlin…” he said softly. “Cedric has come out of Riddle’s wand, and he’s telling Harry that his death isn’t Harry’s fault; they weren’t expecting this to happen.”  
  
Ginny saw that the Diggorys were in tears, and she knew Harry would be reacting just as badly when he finally was able to think about what had happened. Around the stadium, people were showing their sadness by bowing their heads for Cedric, and Ginny did so as well as Graham went on.  
  
“A man, most likely Muggle, says that he was killed by Riddle, and a woman named Bertha Jorkins is telling Harry not to let go.”  
  
A few gasps from the Ministry workers told Ginny that she was one of them and had probably been missing for a while. It was curious that they hadn’t searched for her until she remembered the summer and her father saying that it was Lugo Bagman in charge of it, which meant it wasn’t done well.  
  
“I… I can’t believe it,” Graham whispered, his voice cracking. “Lily and James Potter… They’ve come out of the wand as well.”  
  
Ginny closed her eyes tightly as she thought about how Harry would take seeing his parents outside of pictures for the first time while fighting for his life against Voldemort. He would both hate and love it…  
  
Behind her, Remus and Sirius had stiffened, obviously not expecting that. It was hard to feel anything but sorrow from the two men who had lost their best friends.  
  
“‘Your father's coming…’ Lily Potter is saying. ‘He wants to see you… it will be all right… hold on…’” Graham quoted, obviously using the exact words. Ginny turned to see tears on the cheeks of the two men behind her, and she put a hand on each of their knees, reminding them that they weren’t alone.  
  
“‘When the connection is broken, we will linger for only moments… but we will give you time… you must get to the Portkey, it will return you to Hogwarts… do you understand, Harry?’ they both told him.  
  
“Harry told them yes, and now Cedric is speaking. ‘Harry… take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my parents…’ Harry told him that he will.  
  
“‘We’re so proud of you’ his mother is saying quietly. ‘Even as a Slytherin, we’re proud of you, what you’re doing, and what you stand for.’  
  
“‘Continue what you’re doing and beat this bastard,’ his father continues. ‘Do it now,’ they both said quietly, ‘be ready to run… do it now…’”  
  
Anyone who knew any of the Potters was now in tears, Ginny among them. It was painful hearing that Harry was finally getting to hear this from his parents, and now the memory would always be overshadowed by the other events surrounding it.  
  
“Harry is running away,” Graham continued, his voice shaking sadly. “He dodges spells and then uses _Impedimenta_ just before Riddle yells that Harry is his. Harry is with Cedric and uses _Accio_ on the Triwizard Cup. He’s coming back.”  
  
Ginny looked back down at the maze at the same moment a light flashed at the entrance. _  
_


	31. Chapter Thirty-One

Harry breathed in the smell of grass as he held onto the Cup, Cedric, and his wand, unable to let go. His eyes were closed, and the blood pounding in his ears blocked out all other sound. There was a bit of throbbing in his scar, making Harry wince slightly at the pain as his hands tightened on the objects he was holding.

Suddenly, a hand lightly pressed against his shoulder, and Harry opened his eyes. He turned his head to the right to see Tracey there, sitting on her knees next to him. Her light blue eyes were shining with worry as she just knelt there silently, the eyes boring into his telling him all he needed to know about how the past half hour had been for her.  
  
“Harry, you have to get up,” the voice of Albus Dumbledore said from the other side of Harry, but he didn’t feel as if he could move. “Harry, we need to get Cedric to his parents, and you need the Hospital Wing.”  
  
Still unable to move, Harry just looked into his almost-twin’s eyes, begging her silently to understand and stop him from what he was doing. It had all become too much for him now that it was over; Harry couldn’t take anything more.  
  
“Professor, please, leave this to me,” she finally said softly, not looking away from Harry.  
  
Dumbledore didn’t say another word, but Harry thought he heard someone walking away, and a few moments later he heard Dumbledore’s voice somewhere behind him, talking to the Diggorys.  
  
Feeling terrible, Harry finally let go of the Cup and his wand, which Tracey picked up and put into his holster for him. Still not letting go of Cedric, Harry slowly sat up, and Tracey put a hand on his shoulder as he did so, letting him know tacitly that she was there to help him, not to force him.  
  
He tried to smile gratefully at her, but it came out as more of a grimace. At least Tracey understood as she nodded slightly before moving her hands over to the hand he was using to hold onto Cedric’s wrist, slowly peeling away his fingers from the body of his friend. When he had finally let go of the Hufflepuff, Tracey moved closer to him and wrapped an arm around his waist, taking much of his weight as Harry finally stood up, only pausing for a moment to allow Harry to reach into the boy’s pocket. Tracey didn’t question him, for which Harry was grateful.  
  
No one stopped the pair as they slowly made their way up to the castle. In fact, until they heard footsteps behind them, running to catch up, not a single person even tried to approach the pair, moving away from them as if they had a disease of some kind.  
  
Turning, Harry was a bit relieved to see Ginny rush up to them and finally stop in front of them, panting lightly as she moved to take Harry’s other side and help Tracey get him to the Hospital Wing. During all of this, not a single word was said between the trio.  
  
They knew that there was nothing to say, so they didn’t bother. All they needed to do was get Harry to the Hospital Wing so that he could finally lie down and rest.

…

Samuel stood beside Amelia Bones, watching his daughter walk the boy who was basically his son up to the castle, aided by Ginny. As red, blond, and black heads disappeared, obviously headed to the Hospital Wing, Samuel turned and followed his boss over to the Stunned, fake Alastor Moody.  
  
“What should we do with him?” he asked his boss, eyes not wavering from the imposter, though they still didn’t know his identity.  
  
“Take him up to the castle and into a spare room,” Amelia responded, “possibly even his office.”  
  
Samuel nodded and took out his wand, silently levitating the man in front of them as they walked towards the castle. No one bothered them as they moved, almost as if they were afraid that the floating Moody would wake up and attack them. It made it easier to get to the castle, though, so Samuel knew he had no reason to complain.  
  
Once inside, Amelia led the way through the corridors, making her way up to the fourth floor. They ended up at the Defense Professor’s office, though Samuel knew better than to ask how Amelia actually knew the way.  
  
Samuel set down the unconscious body and then reached into the pocket of the robe the man was wearing, pulling out a set of keys that Amelia took from him, moving over to the trunk to open the seven compartments one at a time.  
  
“Do you have any Veritaserum on you?” Amelia asked as she opened the sixth compartment.  
  
“No, I don’t,” Samuel sighed, realizing that they’d have to involve the Potions Master.  
  
“I guess it’s lucky that this is in here, right?” she said with a bit of a sarcastic edge to her voice as she pulled out a vial of clear liquid from the sixth compartment, and Samuel nodded in agreement. He walked over and took the vial from her.  
  
From inside his cloak, Samuel retrieved a small piece of parchment that was charmed to tell if a liquid had Veritaserum in it. Just a tiny drop from the vial proved that it was the Truth Serum, and he nodded at Amelia, who went back to the trunk and opened the seventh compartment, gasping in shock as she did.  
  
“Alastor,” she whispered, and Samuel looked down into the trunk to see a kind of underground pit with the real Alastor Moody at the bottom, obviously quite sick and malnourished.  
  
Amelia went down to him and checked out the ex-Auror, shaking her head sadly at her findings.  
  
“Throw down a cloak, please,” she called up to Samuel, who quickly grabbed the one from the unconscious imposter. “He’s been Stunned, Imperiused, and a lot more, but he’s alive,” she said as she made her way back into the office, looking down sadly at the man. “Madam Pomfrey will have her work cut out for her, but he’ll be okay in a few weeks.”  
  
Amelia then turned toward the imposter, a hard look on her face as her eyes burned with an internal fire. Samuel had only seen this look on her face for Death Eaters, and usually only the worst of them. Normally he would have felt quite bad for the person on the receiving end of her look, but he couldn’t feel sympathetic for this man, not after all that he had done this year.  
  
“Give him the potion, and let’s question him,” she said frostily, and Samuel complied quickly, his wand pointed at the man as Amelia brought him back around.  
  
“What is your name?” she asked sharply.  
  
“Bartemius Crouch Junior,” the man replied, and both Aurors shared a shocked look before Amelia continued.  
  
Samuel could only listen as the story surrounding how Barty Crouch Jr. was snuck out of Azkaban was revealed. As the man was describing his actions at the Quidditch World Cup, the Polyjuice Potion wore off and both could see who he really was, but the man just continued on as if nothing had happened.  
  
It was horrible to hear how Harry had been set up to bring Voldemort back, but Samuel kept his emotions in check and his face blank. Beside him, Samuel could feel the same tension and disgust from Amelia, who moved only to ask questions.  
  
Finally, Crouch was done, and Amelia Stunned him again, tying him up for good measure.  
  
“He’ll be back in Azkaban this time tomorrow,” she stated, turning to look Samuel in the eyes.  
  
“He deserves it,” Samuel almost spat, and she nodded in agreement.  
  
“You came here as part of Harry’s family, correct?” she asked, and Samuel nodded.  
  
“He’s like a second child to me, and he and Tracey are basically twins. Sirius and Remus didn’t even think of denying us the chance to join them here.”  
  
“Then I believe it’s time you go join your second child,” Amelia said, smiling a bit sadly. “I’ll take care of this one and then go talk with Dumbledore and Fudge about what happened tonight. I just hope Fudge will actually take this seriously.”  
  
“You should really be hoping that he won’t allow himself to be bribed,” Samuel replied, shaking his head slowly as he realized it all came down to Fudge believing the truth or denying everything.  
  
If things went the way Samuel expected them to, Fudge would stop any reports in the paper about the Task, having them say that Harry won and there was a terrible accident that killed Cedric Diggory. The Minister would do anything in his power to keep the image of calm in the Wizarding World, even if it meant making students appear to be liars to their own families. Hopefully parents would listen to their children and get protection of some sort…  
  
“I’ll inform you of the result of this meeting,” Amelia said, and Samuel nodded in thanks. “It’s the least I can do to help Harry, especially after how much he’s helped Susan.”  
  
“When I get the chance I’ll pass on the message,” Samuel said, and taking his leave, headed to the Hospital Wing.

…

Harry was helped to a bed by the two closest to him, but he couldn’t concentrate on a thing. It was as if his mind was just as numb as his body, unable to feel a thing right now. All Harry felt like doing was staring at nothing, no thoughts entering his mind.  
  
“Harry,” Tracy’s soft voice murmured, and some of the numbness retreated so that Harry could turn to look at his almost-twin, blinking slowly. Tracey was putting her wand away, and once it was back in its holster, she reached up to unclasp the chain from around his neck, taking it off. Harry hadn’t even remembered it was there.  
  
“You’re safe now, Harry, you’re back at Hogwarts,” she whispered, moving to sit next to him.  
  
On Harry’s other side, the bed dipped, and he turned to see Ginny was also there. She had a look in her eyes that brought back memories from two years before. All Harry could think of while looking into her brown eyes, darker than normal, was that she was feeling just as terrible as she had after the Chamber incident; it did not help him calm down.  
  
Ginny said nothing, just held her arms up a bit, open and inviting. Harry knew she was asking him if he wanted a hug, and his response was to move into her embrace, his face in her neck as he tried to hold in the tears rising to the surface. A warm touch on his back reached his senses before the hand moved, and Harry knew Tracey was there for him just as much as Ginny.  
  
“All my fault,” Harry whispered into Ginny’s skin, barely moving his mouth, before the tears began to slowly flow from his emerald green eyes, picking up speed with every moment.  
  
Sobs escaped his throat as Harry gave up trying to hold in his tears, his body racking with them as the two girls tried to sooth him softly.  
  
He didn’t know how long they sat there, but finally he ran out of tears and began to calm down again. Two different hands were rubbing his back until Harry slowly sat up, his eyes stinging. It actually took him a moment to realize he didn’t have his glasses on anymore, which meant one of them must have taken them off.  
  
Without saying a word, Harry slowly stood up and headed towards the bathroom, neither girl trying to stop him. It took a good portion of his energy to get there, but he did, and it was all he could do not to be sick as he remembered Cedric’s empty gray eyes staring up at him from the ground.  
  
Feeling terrible, Harry took off his clothes, then his armor, and finally he turned on the water for a shower and stepped into it. Taking the soap, Harry rubbed his entire body with it, possibly taking off a layer of skin as he did so. He was trying to wash the disgust he felt from what had happened because of him.  
  
When he finally felt a little cleaner and his skin was pink, Harry stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. On the counter by the by sink was a pile of clean pajamas from his dorm; Tracey or a house-elf must have gotten them for him. His armor was gone, leaving only his wand, holster, and glasses behind, but Harry suspected that was Tracey’s doing.  
  
Dressed, Harry exited the bathroom and went back to the bed that Ginny and Tracey were still sitting by. They had been joined by everyone with a colored Journal as well as Ron, Daniella, Sirius, and Remus. When the group saw him, most stood up, but his shying away made them sit down again as he slowly walked over to them.  
  
Settling down in the bed, Harry looked around at the group before closing his eyes, feeling as if he didn’t earn the right to see his friends and family. Cedric had died, and Harry had lived, but Harry felt as if it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Yes, Harry was relieved and quite proud of the fact that he had survived when surrounded by Death Eaters and Voldemort, but he should have realized that the Imperiused Viktor was taking out his competition, leaving the way open for him to take the Cup. If he, Harry, had seen that, none of this would have happened.  
  
“ _It isn’t your fault_ ,” Ginny hissed softly, and Harry’s eyes flashed open to look at her. Unlike the others, her eyes didn’t hold sadness or sympathy in them, just a fierce determination.  
  
“ _Yes it is_ ,” he replied in Parseltongue, his eyes closing tightly. “ _If I hadn’t suggested it…_ ”  
  
“ _Harry_!” Ginny exclaimed, and Harry could almost feel the winces of the others, knowing that to them she had just let out a loud hiss. “ _Did you listen to Cedric at all when he came out of Tom’s wand? He Doesn’t Blame You! You know as well as I do that nothing you could have done would have prevented this._ ”  
  
“ _There’s a lot I could have done or realized that could have prevented this,_ ” Harry muttered, but Harry was remembering the conversations with his parents and Cedric — or whatever those things that had come out of Voldemort’s wand were.  
  
“ _Yes, I suppose there was, but Harry, you were in the maze the entire time_ ,” Ginny hissed softly, her hand lightly touching his as he kept his eyes closed and remembered while listening. “ _There was no chance of you figuring it all out while in a place like that. If it had been in class or if you had had some extra information from other sources like we did in the audience, you probably would have figured it out, but you_ didn’t!”  
  
Harry was suddenly struck with a feeling of déjà vu. This situation reminded him of two years before when Ginny had been wallowing in guilt about the Chamber and Sebae. It had taken Harry days of telling Ginny different versions of what she was telling him now to get her to realize that it hadn’t been her fault that she had been tricked by Lord Voldemort and possessed.  
  
“ _Déjà vu much_?” he hissed as his lips twitched slightly. Then, he sighed. “ _Give me time, Ginny. I gave you time, and now I’m asking for it in return._ ”  
  
“ _Take time, but we’ll be talking about this again in a day or two,_ ” she replied, squeezing his hand as he opened his eyes to look around again.  
  
“Has she knocked any sense into you?” Tracey asked with a touch of amusement, and Harry rolled his eyes. “I’ll take that as a yes.”  
  
“How are you doing?” Hermione asked, and Harry turned to look at his friends, emerald eyes without their usual shine in them as pain and despair filled them, making them darker than normal, more dull.  
  
“I’ll survive,” he said quietly before locking onto Graham’s light green eyes. “Come here, Graham.” Harry gestured to the twelve-year-old with a hand, using the other to pat the spot to his right on the bed.  
  
When the younger Slytherin was settled down, Harry put an arm around his shoulders and put his mouth next to his ear, moving the black hair out of the way so he could whisper in his ear.  
  
“You must have been so strong,” he whispered. “One of the few things I saw when leaving the Pitch was you still in your spot in the teacher’s box, scroll in your hands as you looked down at me. Just the fact that you didn’t stop reading, not even when things got so dark and terrible, shows how brave and strong you were.”  
  
“It was hard,” Graham admitted so softly Harry almost couldn’t hear him, “but I thought about how it was you going through all of that, and if you could survive actually going through it, I could stand to read it aloud to the rest.”  
  
“Thank you, then, for being so strong,” Harry finished, reaching up with his left hand to run it through Graham’s hair once before hugging the younger boy to himself more tightly with the arm around his shoulders.  
  
“Where’s Samuel?” Harry asked, looking up at the group and finally recognizing the one person who was missing. Around him, everyone there was as close to the bed as they could get without overwhelming him except one redhead that was further away from the group. Harry did nothing as he caught Ron’s eye, knowing that the boy understood he had to keep silent for a bit still.  
  
“He’s helping Auntie with the imposter,” Susan said, and Harry blinked before realizing they must have found the Death Eater. “It turns out Professor Moody was never Professor Moody, though we don’t know who he actually is yet.”  
  
“His name is Bartemius Crouch Junior, and your aunt is going to deal with him before speaking to the Headmaster,” Samuel said as he walked into the Hospital Wing. “He is a convicted Death Eater who got help escaping from Azkaban; it was thought he has been dead for years until tonight.”  
  
“Interesting,” Blaise commented just as Madam Pomfrey walked over.  
  
“You may all stay here, but I need to take care of my patient right now,” she said sharply, clearing a path to Harry as he gestured for Graham to sit by his feet for a bit.  
  
It took a good fifteen minutes, but Madam Pomfrey finally finished healing his cuts and bruises, leaving a goblet of Dreamless Sleep Potion on his bedside table before leaving to go heal the real Alastor Moody as best she could in his office before bringing him up here on Samuel’s request.  
  
“Harry,” Tracey said softly once the Matron had collected her supplies and left, leaving Samuel to put up Privacy Charms around them, “are you sure about the snake?”  
  
Graham and Maya looked up with interest as everyone else looked confused, and Harry knew he had to be careful with how he said this as this wasn’t information that they wanted everyone to know. The more who knew and understood the information, the more likely the chance of someone finding out.  
  
“It felt just like the other week,” he replied, and those who had information of the Horcruxes began to understand. “Did anyone else…?”  
  
“Only Graham and Maya,” Tracey said, shaking her head. “I erased it the moment I saw it. Dumbledore, fortunately, had been looking out at the maze and crowd instead of at the scroll.”  
  
“You’ll be happy to know that she’s dead, then,” Harry sighed, relaxing.  
  
“How did you —?” Tracey gasped, looking at him with some shock.  
  
“Dagger straight through the head,” he replied shortly.  
  
“Does that always work?” she asked, and Harry looked her in the eyes. After a moment, Tracey nodded in understanding. She now realized it was only because Nagini had been alive that it would work.  
  
“What are you two talking about?” Hermione demanded, and Harry looked up to see that almost everyone was confused.  
  
Looking his friends over, Harry tried to decide if he could trust them all with this secret. Of course, he almost laughed at himself as he realized he would trust all of these friends with anything Voldemort-related.  
  
“Not here,” he stated. “I’ll tell you soon, but not here.”  
  
Some like Hermione looked upset, but all were understanding and nodded in agreement. Harry then turned to the adults in the room, his face serious.  
  
“You have to step up the search,” he stated. “He’s back now, and if we don’t find that last one…” All four nodded, looking grim due to the thoughts passing through their minds at what Voldemort could do if his final Horcrux was never found.  
  
“Samuel,” Harry then said as a thought passed through his mind, a very worrying thought. “Remember where you took me after second year?”  
  
“You mean the place that left you upset once we got back to the house?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, and Harry nodded.  
  
“We came to a conclusion about Voldemort and what we retrieved,” Harry said, remembering the idea of Voldemort only hearing the first half… “If we were right, he’s going to be trying to get that orb. You have to leave something fake in its place so that he’ll waste time trying to get it. Plus, if he doesn’t realize I’ve heard it…”  
  
Samuel nodded in understanding, blue eyes dark with worry.  
  
“I’ll take care of it tonight, so don’t worry,” he said, and Harry felt relief rise in him. “In fact, the four of us should get started on this right away. We’ve got to figure out where we’ll be staying for the summer and how we’ll be protected there.”  
  
“I’m going to stay here,” Sirius said, but Harry shook his head sadly at his godfather.  
  
“Sirius, you need to go with them,” he sighed.  
  
“You’ve got that new house, right Sirius?” Neville asked, surprising the adults while the other students were proud of his confidence that was finally sticking with him.  
  
“Neville’s right,” Padma added. “If you’ve got a new home that no one knows about, you’ll be able to protect it and hide it better as no one will even think to look there.”  
  
“Hide any records of it, and remove any evidence of a new home from anywhere you might have left it, and you’ve got the perfect hiding spot,” Maya agreed.  
  
“Go, Sirius,” Harry said softly, and Sirius walked over to his godson and hugged him tightly.  
  
“You did good, Pup,” he whispered in Harry’s ear. “Just remember to keep it up with these friends of yours. You know what you’ve got to do, so make sure it’s done quickly, possibly even tonight if possible.”  
  
“Tomorrow, Padfoot,” Harry whispered back just before pulling away and raising one side of his mouth a little. “Go, I’ll be fine,” he said in a normal voice. “Besides, it wouldn’t surprise me if the rest of these guys sleep here tonight just to keep an eye on me.”  
  
The adults laughed a bit as Harry’s friends agreed with the statement before leaving, each one giving Harry a final sad look before heading off. When they were finally gone, Harry sat up straighter in bed, surprising his friends, and looked past them all.  
  
“Ron,” he said, and everyone turned in surprise to see that the youngest Weasley boy was, indeed, in the Hospital Wing with them. No one had noticed him except in the beginning, so they had forgotten about him.  
  
“Is it time?” Ron asked, his blue eyes showing more maturity and seriousness than anyone had ever seen in them as he moved into the circle and stood right at the end of Harry’s bed.  
  
“Unfortunately, yes, it is,” Harry stated, and Ron nodded in understanding and agreement.  
  
In his mind, Harry could remember an April afternoon by the lake after classes were over, sitting with Ron and talking with him, both more serious than they normally ever were when together. It had been a hard decision, but Ron had realized that Harry was only asking because he had to, not because he wanted to, so Ron had ended up agreeing with the tough choice presented to the Gryffindor.  
  
“I’ll use the Journals when I can,” Ron said, “and when I can’t, I’ll use one of these three.” Harry nodded in understanding and appreciation for Ron’s forethought to inform him of possible ways to get word from Ron.  
  
“I’m so sorry,” Harry said softly, and Ron relaxed as he moved to stand closer to Harry’s head, the others moving for him as they realized this was something they didn’t understand but was important.  
  
“You’re doing what you have to,” Ron whispered once he was close enough for Harry to hear. “I agree with your motives and goals, so don’t be sorry for what I’m doing of my own free will.” Ron then stood up straight and backed away, turning when he got to the door to say one final thing.  
  
“Get better, and I’ll see you soon.”  
  
Then Ron was gone, back to Gryffindor Tower to go to bed.  
  
“What was _that_ about?” almost the entire group demanded at once.  
  
“ _That_ was a side of Ronald Weasley that we’ve never seen before, but it’s the true Ron,” Harry replied, looking at each of the three Weasleys still around his bed. “For all that he did in our first two years here and how he acted last year, this is the person that emerged from that, and I respect him for who he has become and for what’s he’s agreed to do.”  
  
It looked to Harry that his friends wanted to know what Ron had agreed to do, but at that moment, exhaustion hit Harry hard. Sliding down into the warm bed, Harry closed his eyes, trying to stay awake a little longer.  
  
Someone took off his glasses, and he opened his eyes again to see a blond blur putting them on the bedside table — Tracey. Ginny then held the goblet to his mouth, and Harry swallowed it in two gulps, immediately feeling himself falling asleep. It wasn’t long before he was out cold, immersed in a dreamless sleep that wouldn’t allow him to enter his nightmares created from this evening.


	32. Chapter Thirty-Two

Amelia Bones walked towards the gargoyle that led to the Headmaster’s office, her mind full of a lot of information garnered from this evening.

It had been one eventful evening, and for her, it still wasn’t complete.  
  
Barty Crouch Jr. was already in route back to Azkaban, Samuel Davis had informed her that he had some business to attend to at the Ministry and had left, and Harry Potter was fast asleep, completely surrounded by friends, one of them her own niece, Susan. On top of that, they had had a murder of a student, Lord Voldemort had regained a body, and everyone was panicking.  
  
The one thing that could make it worse was this meeting with Albus Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge. It was obvious that Dumbledore believed what the Pritchard boy had read, and Amelia had to admit that she also agreed with what Harry had claimed. Unfortunately, Fudge was completely opposed to the idea, and he was the one with the power over the Daily Prophet along with the Ministry. This was sure to be an interesting meeting.  
  
Reaching the office, Amelia knocked once and entered, seating herself quickly in the open seat across from Dumbledore and next to Fudge. There was silence as they all thought about events and tried to decide how to bring it up.  
  
“Crouch Jr. is on his way back to Azkaban, and I’m going to be tightening defenses there if it turns out there have been two escapes from there,” she stated to break the silence, knowing that that was as good an opening as any.  
  
“I’m quite glad you and Auror Davis caught him before he harmed anyone else,” Dumbledore said, his fingers interlocked on top of his desk. “How did you know it was Moody who was the imposter, though, if I may ask?”  
  
“I’m sorry, but it’s confidential information,” Amelia responded, knowing that she wasn’t going to say anything about the Journals she had seen all around Hogwarts in just a few hours, mainly with the younger students. “Now, what are we going to do now that Lord Voldemort has returned?”  
  
Amelia had only asked to get a response out of Fudge, and it seemed to be what kicked him into gear.  
  
“He can’t be back!” Fudge exclaimed. “This must have just been a trick by the students to cause panic in the Wizarding World.”  
  
“Cornelius, you were there along with myself and the other judges when young Mr. Potter and Ms. Davis showed us their necklaces as a possible way to keep track of the Champions so that we would know what was occurring in the maze,” Dumbledore said, and Fudge flushed, but Amelia kept quiet. “They proved to us that they worked over long distances and only reported what was said within a certain distance of the Champions, and they only showed what they did up to a certain level.”  
  
“They could have used a spell on them to change what was being written,” Fudge flustered, and Amelia had to stop herself from yelling at the man who was trying his hardest to deny the truth just because he didn’t want to admit it could be true.  
  
“You don’t really believe that, Cornelius,” Dumbledore stated.  
  
“He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named just can’t be back, Dumbledore!” Fudge exclaimed, still red in the face. “It’s impossible. The Potter boy killed him back in ’81. You said it yourself!”  
  
“And I have been claiming for years that Lord Voldemort would return eventually,” Dumbledore replied, and Amelia had to commend him for being so calm as she sat there with a blank face, watching the verbal fight between the two politically powerful wizards.  
  
“He just can’t be back,” Fudge said again. “I’m not going to allow you and the Potter boy to ruin all we’ve managed to do in the past thirteen years!”  
  
“And Cedric Diggory?” Dumbledore asked quietly.  
  
“A terrible accident because of Crouch Jr.!” Fudge exclaimed. “He’s a madman who tried to kill both boys and managed to kill Diggory.”  
  
Amelia could not believe the stupidity of the Minister and how far he was willing to go to deny that Voldemort was back.  
  
“Are you against Lord Voldemort?” Dumbledore asked Fudge, and Fudge spluttered for a few moments before answering.  
  
“Of course I am, Dumbledore!”  
  
“Then we are on the same side as long as you are,” the Headmaster stated. “Please, Cornelius, get rid of the Dementors, send an envoy to the giants, and prepare the people for a war!”  
  
“He isn’t back, and I cannot get rid of the Dementors!” Fudge yelled, standing up. “I’ll lose my job just suggesting any of this! Besides, he cannot be back.” Amelia was astounded that Fudge cared more about his career than the people. Of course, it had been obvious for a while now, but it was hard to hear it from the man’s own mouth.  
  
“Cornelius, if you are not going to help me, I’m afraid to say that we have reached a parting of ways,” Dumbledore stated. “Either you work alongside me against Voldemort, or we work against one another as I stand against Voldemort. Where do you stand, Cornelius?”  
  
“He can’t be back!” Fudge shouted. “I’ve given you free reign of Hogwarts even when funny stories come from here and with the things you’ve done like hiring werewolves and half-giants! There are a lot of things I’ve kept quiet about, but it you’re going to stand against me, then no more, Dumbledore, no more!”  
  
“Very well, Cornelius, you may return to the Ministry with my Floo if you wish,” Dumbledore said, gesturing to the fireplace with a hand.  
  
As Amelia watched in shock from what had occurred, Fudge took some Floo powder and disappeared back to the Ministry. Only then did Dumbledore turn to Amelia, who cleared her face of emotions and looked him in the eye.  
  
“Do you side with Fudge in that Voldemort has not returned?” Dumbledore asked.  
  
“He’s returned,” she stated, “but I cannot side with you. I need to keep my job so that there will be someone in the Ministry with some sense when this blows up in Fudge’s face. If you recruit any Aurors from me, I’ll allow them to help, but make sure they realize I cannot do anything more than turn a blind eye to certain things.”  
  
“Very well,” Dumbledore said, nodding his head to her.  
  
“I believe I shall take my leave,” she said, standing up. “It has been a long night, and it’s going to be a very busy morning tomorrow.”  
  
“You, too, may use the Floo,” Dumbledore said, and Amelia took the offer with a nod.  
  
When she was home again, Amelia sat down at a desk. She had letters to write, the most important two written for Harry Potter and Samuel Davis.  
  
While most were uninformed, Amelia Bones was among the few privy to the fact that this war would not have two sides but three. It seemed to Amelia that the third was the choice for her.

…

Harry tried hard not to look the Diggorys in the eyes as they sat in front of him. There was no story for him to tell as the parents of Cedric had heard it all during the Task the night before.  
  
“Thank you, for bringing his body back to us,” Mrs. Diggory finally said softly, and Harry looked into her eyes for the first time, surprised by her words. “You brought him back even though it might have meant your death.”  
  
“He was my friend,” Harry replied just as softly, looking down at his hands again. “I didn’t want him to die; I didn’t want anyone to die.”  
  
“We know,” Mr. Diggory said, “but we also know and understand that this wasn’t your fault. What Cedric said in that graveyard… what he said was the truth. Please, for Cedric, don’t blame yourself for all of this. He wouldn’t have wanted you to tear yourself apart over this.”  
  
Harry nodded silently. With everyone talking like this, it was hard to blame himself, and he knew he wasn’t to blame, but it would take a bit of time for that knowledge to reach his brain from his heart.  
  
“Will you take at least part of the winnings?” Harry asked, gesturing to the bag of Galleons on the bedside table next to him. “Half of it is Cedric’s anyway.”  
  
“We couldn’t,” Mrs. Diggory said, tears falling down her face. “He’d want you to do something with it.”  
  
“Make it worthwhile,” Mr. Diggory suggested as they stood and took their leave, leaving Harry feeling a bit better if still quite sad, but he was also contemplating what he could do with the money that would be worthwhile.  
  
Still, Harry had things to do once he got out of the Hospital Wing, so he had a lot to think about.

…

Harry pulled off his Invisibility Cloak once the door was closed behind him.  
  
Looking around the room, Harry sighed sadly. Green, blue, yellow, and red walls looked down at him as he sat on his knees in the middle of the room, facing the yellow wall with tears falling down his cheeks.  
  
In his hands was a black Journal, dead and gone. _Cedric Diggory_ had been forever engraved into the back of it in gold lettering, and Harry was trying not to allow his tears to fall onto the one thing of Cedric’s he had.  
  
Hugging the Journal to him, Harry spoke aloud as if to Cedric.  
  
“I’ll keep my promises Cedric. For you and for my parents and for all the others who died by his hand, I’ll be sure to make sure Voldemort never lives to see daylight again once I’m through with him.  
  
“Even more, the promise I made just before the Task, I’ll keep it as well. When I made sure your name would be forever engraved on this Journal if you died, I had been hoping it would never need to come into effect. Now it’s the only thing left of you I have, and it’s the perfect way to make sure you’re remembered. You were the perfect Hufflepuff, Cedric, and I’ll make sure you’re remembered by students who come into this room forever.”  
  
Tears still falling down his face, Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a frame long enough to hold the Journal when completely open. It was thick, and the Journal fit in it perfectly with the name in the center, facing outwards.  
  
Next Harry pulled out a piece of metal painted gold to make a plaque out of. Using his wand, Harry carved into it with a spell to make it neat and worthy of his friend.  
  
Preparations done, Harry shrunk it all and put it into his pocket, knowing he’d be back the next day with everyone owning a Journal to give Cedric all a memorial.

…

“How are you really holding up, Harry?” Draco asked as he and Theo sat down on either side of him in their dorm. Blaise wasn’t there with them, but Harry didn’t have it in him to wonder where his friend was. Harry had just finished telling everyone over the Journals to be in the special room off The Den at noon the next day.  
  
“I’ll survive,” Harry sighed, looking at the two boys who were paler than normal, which was saying something for Draco. “And you both?”  
  
“I’m only going home to pack my stuff,” Theo admitted. “I’ll be leaving to live with Tracey as soon as I can, which will mean I’ll probably end up wherever you are.”  
  
“Sirius said they’re working on possible ways to protect us for the summer,” Harry said, leaning back against his pillows. “You, Draco?”  
  
“Father is going to try and force me to join the Death Eaters soon, I believe, though I hope he won’t,” Draco stated, and Harry could see the disgust and fear in Draco’s gray eyes. Harry knew his friend didn’t want this, which meant Harry had to be sure Draco understood the other choices.  
  
“Theo, can you leave Draco and me alone for a bit?” Harry requested. “I think we need to have a talk.”  
  
Theo nodded and left the dorm without questioning him while Draco was left looking at Harry in confusion.  
  
“With Voldemort back, things are going to get hard at your home — especially because we both know whose side you’re going to fight on when it comes down to it,” Harry said. “If you ever have trouble, or need to get out of there, or just need something, either go to Tracey’s house or come to mine. We’re your friends, Draco, and I think of you like a brother. Come to us if you need anything, anything at all, especially if it’s a place to hide and stay.”  
  
Draco looked at Harry and nodded a little. Harry knew that the message had been received, but he wasn’t sure if it had been understood yet. Only time would tell if it had been.  
  
“Be careful this summer, Draco,” Harry said softly, placing a hand on his friend’s knee and looking into his gray eyes carefully. Fear was swirling in the gray, and Harry knew that Draco unconsciously understood his words, even if he didn’t consciously. In the end, Draco would choose the right choice and be happy for it.  
  
“Now come on, I want to swim, and I’m willing to bet you’d enjoy it as well,” Harry said with a small grin — the largest smile he was able to make at the moment.  
  
Draco chuckled quietly and smiled, rushing over to his bed to get changed.

…

Harry looked around the room sadly. He, Tracey, and Ginny had expanded the room finally so that every student in the school could fit in here comfortably, though not everyone was in the room at this time.  
  
At the front of the group were the Hufflepuffs, and the rest of the students surrounded them as they all stood facing the Hufflepuff wall in the small room for those with Journals.  
  
“Thank you all for coming,” Harry said softly, taking in the black robes everyone was wearing even though there were no classes. The only colors in the room were the House colors on the robes, and everyone had at least something that was yellow for Cedric.  
  
“Cedric and I went into that maze knowing that we might die, though both of us were hoping we wouldn’t,” Harry continued sadly, all alone at the front of the group because that was how he had wanted it.  
  
“A day or two before the Task, Cedric and I talked, and he gave me his Journal for a few moments so I could put a charm on it. You see, most of the Journals will lose your names when you graduate from Hogwarts and return them to these cabinets, but I made it so that Cedric’s name wouldn’t disappear if he died while in that maze.”  
  
Around the room, many gasped as they realized what Harry was saying. Many of the younger students had tears in their eyes, and Cedric’s closest friends already had tears falling, not even trying to hide or stop them.  
  
Harry pulled out the frame he had prepared the day before, unshrinking it so they could all see the Journal it encased.  
  
“This is his Journal, and I think you’ll all agree that Cedric Diggory was a true Hufflepuff and deserves to be remembered for it, not because he was the first to die by Lord Voldemort’s hand upon his return, as most will think of it.”  
  
Quiet murmurs of agreement reached Harry ears as he turned and walked to the spot he had chosen to place the frame, holding it in place above his head.  
  
“Please, those of you who know the spell, use it on the frame to show that he’ll always be remembered,” Harry requested without turning around, knowing they’d understand he meant the Permanent Sticking Charm.  
  
Suddenly, pink lights hit the frame perfectly, not touching Harry’s hands. He then removed his hands and backed away to look at the black Journal inside of the black frame.  
  
Turning again, Harry saw that those who had uttered the spell were still raising their wands, and those that hadn’t were pulling wands from all over to raise them as well.  
  
A single tear falling down his cheek, Harry pulled out the plaque he had made, unshrunk it, and stuck it to the wall beneath the frame before backing away, his wand also raised at the Journal in memory for Cedric. It was large enough for most of the room to read it, and those that couldn’t were read it by those who could.

Cedric Diggory  
A True Hufflepuff  
Who Died For What He Believed In  
Who Died As a Hogwarts Champion  
Who Didn’t Have To Die  
Who Had Enough Friends to Make This Memorial Last Forever  
A True Friend

Harry heard everyone crying as they slowly lowered their wands. Around him, friends began hugging as they remembered Cedric, a friend to everyone in this room.  
  
“The words fit,” Ginny whispered in his ear as she hugged him from behind, going up on her tiptoes to place her chin on his shoulder.  
  
“They fit because that was Cedric,” Harry replied, turning around to hug his girlfriend tightly, laying his head on hers and letting a few tears land in her red hair as she let a few soak into his robes.  
  
People walked up and shook his hand sadly, most murmuring quiet words of sorrow, encouragement, gratitude, and promise.  
  
Harry turned to watch as Hermione walked past him to stand under the frame on the wall. She then conjured a white rose and left it on the floor under his memorial.  
  
Soon, everyone was conjuring a flower or asking an older student to. Harry himself left a white lily.  
  
Cho Chang, Cedric’s girlfriend, provided a picture of Cedric that was placed into a conjured frame by one of Cedric’s dormmates. It was permanently placed above the frame with the Journal, and Harry knew that this memorial had been just the thing these students needed.  
  
Finally, everyone left the room, leaving Harry alone with a large number of flowers that he arranged under the memorial before charming them to last the summer. When he got back to Hogwarts, Harry would remove them finally.  
  
With a final tear for his friend, Harry left to go pack for the next morning, which was when the Hogwarts Express would take the students back home after a sad end to the year.

…

Harry looked around the Great Hall as he walked towards the Slytherin table for the End of Term feast. The hangings around them were all black with the Hogwarts crest on them.  
  
Everyone in the Hall was subdued, even the darkest of Slytherins in seventh year. Not even the fact that Voldemort was back could make them truly happy when someone everyone in the school knew and at least liked had been murdered.  
  
When everyone was finally there, Dumbledore rose, looking around the room sadly.  
  
"The end of another year. There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight," Dumbledore said, "but I must first acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here," he gestured toward the Hufflepuffs, "enjoying our feast with us. I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise your glasses, to Cedric Diggory."  
  
The entire Hall stood and said quietly, sadly, “Cedric Diggory,” before drinking some of their drink.  
  
Looking at his fellow students, Harry saw tears in some eyes, but most couldn’t cry anymore. If there was one thing the memorial had done, it was take away their tears, though Harry hoped it was because they got some closure and not because they were just out of them.  
  
"Cedric was a person who exemplified many of the qualities that distinguish Hufflepuff house," Dumbledore continued once they had all sat down. "He was a good and loyal friend, a hard worker, he valued fair play. His death has affected you all, whether you knew him well or not. You all heard how he died and why.  
  
“The Ministry does not wish for you all to remember this, and they will try to convince your families that what you heard during the Third Task was a lie. All I can do is hope that you all realize what the truth is in your heart and do not believe the lies. Please, remember Cedric Diggory.”  
  
Dumbledore paused as many students raised their goblets and a few their wands to Cedric. He then turned to look at the Durmstrang students and then the Beauxbatons teens.  
  
"The Triwizard Tournament's aim was to further and promote magical understanding. In the light of what has happened - of Lord Voldemort’s return - such ties are more important than ever before.  
  
"Every guest in this Hall," Dumbledore said, and his eyes lingered upon the Durmstrang students, "will be welcomed back here at any time, should they wish to come. I say to you all, once again - in the light of Lord Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort’s gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.  
  
"It is my belief - and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken - that we are all facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this Hall have already suffered directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Many of your families have been torn asunder. A week ago, a student was taken from our midst.  
  
"Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."  
  
Again, the students all around the Hall raised their goblets.  
  
Looking around the Hall, Harry realized that Hogwarts was more united than it had ever been before, and the foreign students were just as involved in the relationship now. Their ties were stronger than most would have believed possible before Harry had gotten to Hogwarts. Now was the time to prove that their ties were good, and maybe even create some new ones, Harry thought as he looked at the older Slytherins.  
  
It was going to be a hard few years, but it would work out in the end.

…

“Please, take these and use them to contact my friends and me,” Harry told Viktor and Fleur as they stood outside the castle, waiting to have to leave. “You’ve seen us use them all year, and now it’s your turn. If any of your friends want one, just let me know, and I’ll send them to you.”  
  
Harry was holding out two black Journals, one with the Beauxbatons crest on it and the other with the Durmstrang crest.  
  
“Zank you, ‘Arry,” Fleur said taking it and then kissing him on each cheek. “I’m very sad zat Cedric iz gone, but I will ‘elp ‘ow I can. I might even come back to work on my Eenglish.”  
  
“If you do, get in touch,” Harry replied with a smile before she took off down to her carriage before turning back to the famous Quidditch star.  
  
“I vill see you in the future, I think,” Viktor said. “I may not come live here, but I vill come visit and come if you call for help. Please, if you ever need me or my contacts, ask.”  
  
“Thanks, Viktor, I will,” Harry said, shaking the man’s hand before watching him walk off to his boat.  
  
Sighing heavily, Harry headed off to the carriages that would take him to the Hogwarts Express for a long train ride home. It would be hard, but they’d get over this the best they could, and until then, they’d just continue living. _  
_


	33. Chapter Thirty-Three

Draco Malfoy sat in his room the evening that the Hogwarts Express had taken him home. In his hand was the emerald-encrusted dagger that Harry had given him three summers ago, the handle worn with use from training and the blade still just as sharp as it had been when he received it.

He knew, not only in his heart, but also in his mind, that he would have to make a choice soon. The Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort, had returned, and his father was one of his most avid followers, which meant Draco was expected to be as well.  
  
The thing was, Draco now had a very hard predicament ahead of him. His mother and father had no idea that the alliance Lucius Malfoy had requested that his son make with Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, would actually end up in a friendship and a silent change of sides and personalities.  
  
Gone was the boy who was afraid of his father and did what he asked. Gone was the young child who adored his father and the ideas he was putting in Draco’s young head. Gone was the youth who didn’t know where he was headed, who was just following the easiest path instead of the right one.  
  
The main reason Draco was worried was because he knew which side of the upcoming war his parents would be on, and it wasn’t the side he particularly wanted to join. If it meant fighting his own parents, he would do it, but it wouldn’t be easy. No child ever wanted to fight with his or her own parents, especially not when it could lead to their death or imprisonment.  
  
Someone knocked on the door of Draco’s room, startling him out of his thoughts. He quickly slid the dagger back into its sheath so that no one else could see it and called for whoever it was to come in. His father entered the room with a serious look on his face, and his mother stood in the doorway, just watching.  
  
“Draco, our master and lord has returned,” Draco’s father said with a look in his eye and a tone in his voice that scared Draco. “We are some of his most willing servants, and I must know if you are willing to do what he asks if he ever requests it — are you willing to become a Death Eater?”  
  
Draco looked between his parents, his father with a serious look and his mother an unreadable expression, but worry in her eyes. He hadn’t realized he would have to choose so soon; he had expected time before his father had come to him about this. Unfortunately, as his earlier thoughts had told him Draco knew that the only truthful answer he had to give was the complete opposite of what his father would wish to hear.  
  
Thinking back to when he had had that private conversation with Harry, Draco remembered his words.  
  
“ _With Voldemort back, things are going to get hard at your home — especially because we both know whose side you’re going to fight on when it comes down to it,_ ” Harry had said. _“If you ever have trouble, or need to get out of there, or just need something, either go to Tracey’s house or come to mine. We’re your friends, Draco, and I think of you like a brother. Come to us if you need anything, anything at all, especially if it’s a place to hide and stay.”_  
  
Now that he thought about it, Draco realized Harry had known something like this was going to happen, had known what he had been trying so hard to deny for so long. With Voldemort back, it was only a matter of time before he would be forced to openly choose a side, and when that happened, his father would go mad. Draco would have to leave home for good to stay alive.  
  
Harry had been giving him a way out, a reason not to lie to his father because he had no reason to lie.  
  
Realizing this, Draco looked his mother in the eyes, and he saw the pain flash through them as she realized what he had decided, what was about to happen. Then, Draco looked up at his father, defiance running through his blood and showing in his eyes and on his face. His father looked shocked and amazed by the look, and Draco knew that he would have to speak now or forever hold his silence.  
  
“No,” he said sharply, all of his defiance and disgust at the idea of serving Voldemort dripping from his voice.  
  
“What did you say, Draco?” his father demanded once he had gotten over his shock.  
  
“I said that _no_ , I will _not_ serve _your_ master,” Draco said, almost glaring at his father. “You told me all those years ago to ally myself with Harry Potter; well, I did what you asked and more.  
  
“For years you’ve seen me go to his home or the Davis home during the summer, yet you’ve never questioned it. You, father, never realized that I was not an _ally_ of Harry Potter, but his _friend_. He showed me a different path I could take back in our first year, and I decided that I preferred it over the path you’re leading me on.”  
  
Draco’s father was watching with a hardened face, showing no emotions. His mother just looked despaired, her eyes widened with a deep sadness in them.  
  
“Oh, I spent the entire year hiding in the shadows, watching Harry and his friends, and I learned that he did not force his will onto anyone; he let them decide on their own or suggest things when they wanted to. If I have to choose between Lord Voldemort,” — Draco’s parents both flinched at the name, and he felt a flash of pleasure and guilt at the sight of it before it was gone — “and Harry, I’m going to choose Harry every time, because he’s doing what’s right.”  
  
“You’re willing to side with Dumbledore?” his father snarled, and Draco shook his head sadly, eyes closing for just a moment.  
  
“Not even Harry is siding with Dumbledore in this, father,” Draco told his father. “We both agree that Dumbledore isn’t doing things properly. He is more like your master than Harry is; Dumbledore uses the people who trust him without listening to their ideas or letting them make their own choices. Neither Harry nor I will work with Dumbledore until he stops using people like pawns and other pieces in a chess game with him as king.”  
  
Draco could see the shock on his parents’ faces as they heard what he was saying, and he could tell that while they despised Dumbledore, it had been more on principle and because of Voldemort than because they had seen things they didn’t like about him.  
  
“In fact, Dumbledore isn’t even the king on the side against your master, but he won’t admit to it,” Draco added. “For now, there are three groups in the war, and two are against your master.”  
  
“Draco,” his mother said softly, and he turned to her and saw the pain, sadness, and worry in her eyes. “Please, you must think about this and realize the mistake you are making by going against your master.”  
  
“I’m sorry, Mother,” Draco said sadly as he shook his head, “but he is not my master, and I’ve been thinking about this for years. In fact, ever since the third task, I’ve known that this would happen soon, and now it has.”  
  
“Draco, your master will not like this,” his father told him, and Draco finally glared at his father, startling him.  
  
“I just said that he is _not_ my _master_ ,” Draco snarled, the fox in him coming to the surface as his anger brought forth his magic a bit. He fought and managed to push his magic back down, the fox with it.  
  
“Lucius,” Draco’s mother said very softly, and Draco watched as his father turned to her, and an understanding was made between them.  
  
“You have a week to pack anything you need, find a place to stay, and leave, Draco,” his father said shortly, not turning away from Draco’s mother. “At the end of the week, I will have to tell the Dark Lord of your choices, and you must be long gone and hidden so that he cannot find you. When that is done, he will most likely order me to bring you to him to be killed the next time I see you, and he will tell me to disown you. Get yourself out of here, and never run into me again if you can help it.”  
  
With that, Draco’s mother moved out of the way, and his father left Draco’s room. Then, she entered the room and closed the door before going and sitting next to Draco on his bed, looking at him sadly.  
  
“I made my choice, Mother,” Draco said softly, a little shocked by what his father had said and was doing.  
  
“I know, Draco, we both know,” she replied. “I’m not here to change your mind about anything. All I wish to do is help you, give you a chance to survive this war and live your own life after it.”  
  
“What do you mean?” Draco asked, surprised by her words as his mother had never been the one to show that she cared for him very often, let alone with words.  
  
“Draco, your father was not just saying things when he said that the Dark Lord would order him to have you disowned for this,” his mother said sadly, turning to look at the closed mahogany door of his room. “It is going to happen, and it’s going to be soon.”  
  
Draco stared at his mother, shock running through his entire body. He had never even thought that he would be disowned for what he was doing. The idea had never even crossed his mind.  
  
“I’m going to go to Gringotts tomorrow and make a vault for you and you alone, no matter what your surname is, and it will hold enough for you to survive long after the war, even if you do no work,” his mother said, and Draco felt relieved.  
  
“Now, I have a question for you, Draco.” Draco’s mother turned to face him, a serious look on her face, though he could still see the sad emotions in her blue eyes when he looked into them. “Do you have a way to contact your friends without an owl?”  
  
Draco only nodded, unable to say anything in his shock at the randomness of the question. He hadn’t expected to be asked anything like that.  
  
“Please, find a way to tell our cousin that I must meet with him tomorrow,” his mother pleaded, and Draco blinked at her tone.  
  
“By cousin do you mean…” Draco trailed off as his mother finished the sentence for him.  
  
“Sirius Black, Harry Potter’s godfather? Yes, I do mean him.”  
  
“I’ll contact Harry now,” he said as he pulled out the silver Journal in his pocket and returned it to normal size. Draco chanced a single glance at his mother to see that she could not see the Journal, which meant the charms were still working.  
  
He went to his desk and pulled out a pencil, not really caring what his mother thought about his writing with a Muggle object. Draco then activated the Journal and saw that Harry was on his own Journal. When he saw the conversation he and Ginny were having, Draco almost snorted. They were talking about why Daphne and Blaise weren’t dating even though they had gone to the Yule Ball together. Unfortunately, he had to interrupt and began to write.  
  
_Draco: Harry, Ginny, I’m really sorry about breaking up this very amusing conversation, but I need to talk to Harry alone. Urgently.  
  
Ginny: It’s fine, Draco. We’ll talk about this again later, Harry._  
  
Draco watched as Ginny left before writing again .  
  
_Draco: My mother and father came to my room this evening, and I’ve been given a week to leave the house.  
  
Harry: Come to my house.  
  
Draco: I will, but right now my mother wishes for me to request something. Can you go into the same room as Sirius so that we can talk between the two of them?  
  
Harry: Sure, give me a minute._  
  
“Harry is going to go find Sirius so that you two can talk between us and make arrangements,” Draco told his mother as he turned around to see that she had stood up and pulled another chair towards his desk so that she was basically sitting next to him.  
  
“Thank you,” she said softly.  
  
_Harry: Draco? I’m with Sirius in the study; no one else is in the house.  
  
Draco: Okay, let me find out what my mother wants to say._  
  
Draco began asking his mother what she wanted him to tell Sirius, and he wrote it all down word for word after telling Harry to repeat the conversation word for word.  
  
_Draco: Sirius, my cousin, I know we have never gotten along and that what I’m doing is more than I should ever ask from you, but you’re the only person I can turn to. My son, he’s changed because of your godson, and while I cannot say whether I like it or not, it puts him in great danger. Lucius is going to be ordered to disown Draco, and I cannot leave my son with nothing — no money, no home, and no name._  
  
He paused as his mother did before he continued.  
  
_Draco: Money we can give him through a vault that only he can enter and that is not connected to the Malfoy name. A home I know he can find in his friends. The only thing he cannot get as easily is a name, but I think you know as well as I do how he can get one.  
  
Harry: Sirius says that he does know what your mother is talking about, though I’m completely lost right now.  
  
Draco: My mother nodded when I told her what you told me. As for the name thing, I have ideas, but I’m still quite lost as well.  
  
Harry: Sirius asks how she wishes to have this happen.  
  
Draco: Please, meet with me at a place of your choosing with only your godson and yourself there, and I will only bring Draco, my son, with me. We must make this happen before I have no control over him, before he loses his name. If you request it, I will hand over my wand and allow you to keep it until our business is done, but this needs to be done, and I wish it to be done tomorrow afternoon.  
  
Harry: My cousin, we will meet at the Leaky Cauldron at three, only the four of us, and then we will go to Gringotts and do it right at the source. Draco will have a home and be cared for with me; we will all work to be sure that he survives to live his life.  
  
Draco: Thank you, Sirius._  
  
“Mother, does father know what you’re doing?” Draco asked, and he knew just from the look in her eyes that he didn’t.  
  
“He knows that I have an idea to help you, but he doesn’t know the specifics of it,” she said. “When he hears of my choice, he will not be disappointed but relieved, though, Draco, so do not worry.”  
  
Draco nodded and went back to his Journal.  
  
_Draco: My mother is done.  
  
Harry: Sirius said that he is as well, and now he has some things to do in the study, so he’s kicking me out, claiming that they have to do with you so I shouldn’t complain. Evil godfather. Anyway, I’m sorry that all of this is happening.  
  
Draco: So am I, Harry, so am I._  
  
“Draco, you must pack tonight and in the morning, for you will be leaving with Sirius when our business is done,” his mother said. “You may use magic to pack as you must do it quickly and completely.” He just nodded silently. “I will have a house-elf bring you a single rucksack that will hold everything for you.”  
  
Draco watched as his mother put the chair back into the corner, gave him one last look, and left the room. He guessed she was off to make preparations for tomorrow.  
  
Turning back to his Journal, Draco knew that tomorrow would be a very hard day.

…

Draco looked around his suddenly empty room as he closed the rucksack and slung it over a shoulder, every single thing he owned from his room and around the house in the bag. It was a quarter to three, and it was finally time for him to say goodbye to his home.  
  
Sighing sadly, he left and went to the fire in the room built specifically for the Floo. His mother was waiting for him there, and they both quickly Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron. Draco took one last look at his childhood home before he disappeared in a flash of green flames, knowing he would not to see the room again until the end of the war at the earliest.  
  
When they got to the Leaky Cauldron, Draco immediately spotted Harry and Sirius sitting at a table in the corner in the room, both with a Butterbeer in their hands. He pointed them out to his mother, and she led them to the table, sitting across from Sirius while Draco sat across from Harry.  
  
“It’s been a long time, Narcissa,” Sirius said as Draco shared a look with Harry that showed how confused both boys were.  
  
“It most certainly has, Sirius,” Draco’s mother said with a small nod of acknowledgement.  
  
“Would either of you like a drink, or should we move this to Gringotts now?” Sirius asked, including Draco in his question.  
  
“I think I’ll buy Draco a Butterbeer to bring along, but we should go now,” Draco’s mother said after seeing the pleading look on his face as he looked at Harry’s almost-full Butterbeer that he was drinking.  
  
Draco smiled as his mother went to go buy the drink, and Harry returned it.  
  
Sirius turned to Draco. “How are you doing, Draco?” he asked, and Draco turned serious again as he realized what Sirius was asking about.  
  
“Not that bad,” he said quietly. “It’s hard, realizing all that’s going on around me, but it could be a lot worse. Father was shocked by my choice, but he’s giving me the chance to run. You know what mother is doing.” He gestured toward his mother a bit sadly.  
  
“Draco, I’m really so—” Harry began, but Draco interrupted him.  
  
“It’s not your fault at all, Harry. All that’s happening, all of the changes, I knew they would probably happen. I made a choice years ago when I joined the group, and all I’ve done is reaffirm it and gone public with my choice. You didn’t tell me to do anything; I chose this. Even more, Harry, I knew what would happen, and I still decided to do it when I could have lied, changed sides, or anything else to get away from this, but I didn’t.” Draco took a deep breath and looked Harry in the eyes, still seeing some guilt in the emerald green looking into his own gray.  
  
“If anything, Harry, you gave me a reason to say no to my father, a place to go, another path to follow,” he told the boy, and the guilt began to recede. “If you have to feel guilty about it, try to feel guilty about the fact that you’re giving the children of Death Eaters and the people who like what they’re doing another chance, a different path to follow that won’t lead them to be the same people as their parents.” Draco rubbed a hand down his face, fighting back a sigh.  
  
“You don’t know how many Slytherins — and even a few students from the other Houses — would be basically Junior Death Eaters right now if you hadn’t done what you’ve been doing, Harry. What you did…” Draco broke off, shaking his head in amazement as he thought about it.  
  
Looking at his friend, he could tell that he was shocked, and in that moment, Draco knew that Harry didn’t have any idea what sort of impact he had on the other students in Hogwarts, especially the ones with Journals.  
  
“Harry, you told all of us that there was a second path, and then you let us find it on our own. By letting us find it instead of forcing the ideas on us beyond telling us that they existed if we looked for them, you made it so that all of us looked and found the truth of the world, not what our parents had told us for years. Every single person who owns a Journal right now owns one because you showed us that there was a different path to follow than the one we were taking — unless they were already on it.”  
  
“But I…” Harry couldn’t even form a sentence as he shook his head in denial.  
  
Unfortunately, Draco couldn’t think of anything else to say to convince his friend. Then, to his surprise, his mother spoke from behind him, and she was speaking to Harry.  
  
“My son is right, you know,” she said softly, and Harry looked up at her quickly as Draco turned around to face her. “Most of the children raised by my husband’s friends are Slytherins, and if you had tried to actually force an idea on them, they would have pushed it away without a thought. By telling them about it and leaving them to think about it and find it on their own, you’ve given them a chance to get away from the Dark Lord and survive. Some of them may even fight because they feel it is right, not because they feel forced into it.”  
  
“Cissy?” Sirius said as he stared at his cousin in amazement. She turned to face him with a hard look on her face.  
  
“I will protect my son with everything I have, even if it means defying the Dark Lord or dying in the process,” she said quietly, yet there was a sharp tone to her voice that showed how much she meant her words, and Draco was shocked and amazed by it.  
  
“Mum?” he gasped quietly in amazement, using the name for her that he hadn’t used in years as his father had told him it was unbecoming in someone with his status.  
  
“Draco, you are my son, and I’m going to do anything I can to protect you,” his mother said as she bent down to look him in the eyes, her blue eyes boring into his with an intensity that frightened him a little, though he was relieved to know that it was because she was going to protect him.  
  
“Then let us go and help him a bit more,” Sirius said.  
  
Draco looked around to see that Sirius actually had a serious look on his face. Harry, on the other hand, looked on a bit enviously, though it was obvious that he was thinking hard about something. It took Draco a moment to realize that Harry was actually thinking about what his mother had told his friend.  
  
“Yes, let’s go,” Draco’s mother agreed.

…

“We would like a contract for changing someone’s surname to the name of Black if they have the blood of a Black in him or her,” Sirius requested of Griphook, the goblin, once all four were seated in a private room in Gringotts.  
  
Draco had to hold in a sigh as he realized his guess had been correct. He would be losing the Malfoy name and taking up his mother’s maiden name, Black. Draco Malfoy would be no more as he would be Draco Black. It was hard to accept, but he realized it was for the best.  
  
“Could you not do this at the Ministry?” Griphook asked.  
  
“Yes, we could, but we would prefer to do it here where the Ministry cannot interfere or change the decision,” Draco’s mother told the goblin, and he nodded once with a vicious smile before leaving the room.  
  
“I’m going to be living with Sirius and Harry, aren’t I?” Draco asked sadly, his eyes looking at the table in front of him.  
  
“You are, and I’m sorry about all of this, but it’s the only way to keep you safe,” his mother told him softly as she put a single finger under his chin and made him look up at her. “Remember, though, that you will still hold a very powerful name, so you must act properly while also being yourself.”  
  
Draco nodded once just before Griphook returned, a scroll in hand. The goblin sat back in his seat and looked at everyone in the room.  
  
“Narcissa Malfoy, you are here to give your son, Draco Malfoy, your maiden name?” the goblin asked, and she nodded. “And you, Sirius Black, are here as head of the family to accept him?” Sirius murmured his assent . “Very well, it seems we have all we need to make this happen, but I must ask, will Draco Malfoy still live with his parents, or will he be moving?”  
  
“He’s to live with me and my godson, Harry,” Sirius said, and Griphook agreed slowly .  
  
“Would you like to change the guardianship over to Mr. Black while we’re doing the change of the name so that Mr. Malfoy won’t have his father with control over him until he is seventeen?” Griphook asked, and Draco was a bit surprised that he knew it was his father who was a problem.  
  
“Why do you speak as if my husband is the problem?” Draco’s mother asked, and he was a bit happy to hear the question as he wanted to hear the answer as well.  
  
“I’m sorry if my assumption was wrong, but I just suspected it because your husband is not present, Mrs. Malfoy.”  
  
“Give my cousin guardianship, with no chance of his father taking it back. Only I with verification that it is I and not an imposter, please ,” his mother requested, apparently appeased with the goblin’s response and just wanting to get this over with quickly.  
  
“Of course,” Griphook agreed with a nod of the head.  
  
The goblin laid out the scroll on the table with the words facing him, using small metal squares to hold it in place so that it did not roll up again. He then pulled out a small knife from a pouch hanging from his belt, not unlike the one Harry was wearing that Draco knew held his throwing knives. A quill that Draco knew was a blood quill was pulled from another pouch and added to the table.  
  
“Mrs. Malfoy, as mother of the one changing names and the one descending from the Black family, do you agree to the change of your son’s name as well as the change in guardianship to Sirius Orion Black?” Griphook asked formally as he picked up the small knife.  
  
“Yes,” his mother said.  
  
“Please hold out your right hand so that the contract can verify your blood both for when you sign and so that it can prove you are who you say you are,” Griphook requested, and his mother held out her hand without hesitation.  
  
With great speed, the goblin slit her palm just enough for a drop of blood to fall onto the contract before pressing a finger to it and healing the cut. With a cloth, Griphook cleaned the blade while watching the scroll. Draco saw that his mother’s name, both married and maiden, was filling itself in on the right lines except for where she had to sign with the blood quill.  
  
“Sirius Black, do you, as head of the Black family, accept Draco Malfoy becoming Draco Black as well as becoming his legal guardian until he reaches the age of seventeen?”  
  
Sirius agreed, and Griphook cut his hand as well so that Sirius’s name appeared where it had to. Then, it was Draco’s turn.  
  
“Draco Malfoy, do you accept the change of your name to Draco Black along with Sirius Black becoming your guardian until you are of age instead of your parents Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy?” Griphook asked.  
  
“Yes,” Draco said with as determined a voice as he could produce as he realized he would no long be known as a Malfoy but as a Black until he died, even though he had Malfoy blood in him.  
  
The cut hurt for only moments before it was gone, and Draco could watch as his name appeared in the final blank spaces on the contract.  
  
“Now you each must sign your names in the appropriate spaces, and the change is complete,” Griphook said, holding out the blood quill to Draco’s mother.  
  
She signed first before Sirius did, and then it was Draco’s turn. While use of a blood quill on a minor was normally illegal, Draco knew that use of it for a contract with a parent’s agreement was allowed.  
  
The quill stung a little, but he fought past the pain to sign his name neatly before handing it back. He looked at the back of his hand as the signature of his name disappeared from it.  
  
“Draco Malfoy is now Draco Black, and Sirius Black is his guardian,” Griphook said as he rolled up the contract after making copies of it for Draco’s mother and Sirius as well as one for him and one for the Ministry.  
  
“I’d like to do one more thing before we leave,” Draco’s mother said, and Draco remembered his mother mentioning giving him money.  
  
“Yes?” Griphook said as he looked at her.  
  
“Please, take this amount of money from the Malfoy vault and put it into a new vault under the name Draco Black,” she requested, handing the goblin a slip of paper that Draco knew would specify a large amount of money. “Then can you please arrange it so that if Draco is disowned he cannot lose the money as it is his alone to do with it as he wishes?”  
  
Draco had known the whole day and last night that his mother was being this kind to everyone they talked to because it was how she charmed them into doing things. Normally it was his father doing this sort of thing, but his mother could do it, too, when it was necessary, and she obviously felt this was a desperate time.  
  
“Of course,” Griphook said as he nodded his head. “I’ll have a key sent up here shortly. You may leave after you receive it.”  
  
The goblin left the four of them to themselves, Harry finally moving as he walked over to Draco and put a hand on his shoulder while looking him in the eyes.  
  
In that moment, Draco felt closer to Harry than ever before. They might have come from different backgrounds, but they both now lived with someone who wasn’t their parents.  
  
“It’ll be hard in the beginning, but you’ll start getting used to it, and before you know it, thinking about all of this won’t hurt anymore,” Harry told Draco quietly as Sirius and Draco’s mother began talking, obviously not wanting to be overheard by the two adults.  
  
Draco could only nod, but he knew that, to Harry, it would be enough.  
  
Harry smiled before heading back towards his seat, Sirius ruffling his head as he passed by his godfather.  
  
A few minutes later, a goblin came in with a small key which he gave to Draco before leading the four of them to the lobby of the bank. Sirius and Harry moved away from Draco and his mother to give them room to say goodbye.  
  
“I know I’ve never shown it properly, but I’m proud of you, and I _do_ love you, Draco,” his mother said with a sad smile on her face.  
  
“I love you, too,” he said quietly as he looked her in the eyes, knowing that the next time he saw his parents might just be the last time.  
  
Then his mother surprised him by hugging him tightly, and he quickly moved his arms to hug her back. It had been many years since they had done something like this, so it was almost as if this was a new sensation for Draco, having his mother hug him even though he was fifteen .  
  
Finally, they let go and his mother cupped one of his cheeks before kissing him on the head and turning away from him. Just before she turned, Draco saw a single tear slipping down her face, and he was fighting back the tears in his own eyes. He blinked to make them go away until his eyes were dry.  
  
Turning away from his mother’s departing back, Draco walked to Sirius and Harry with his head held high. He was walking away from his past as a Malfoy and walking to his future as a Black. _  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One question I received over and over on FF.net after posting Chapter 32 was about the ministry being a side in this war. It’s my personal opinion that Fudge/the Ministry is NOT a side in this war. What is the man doing to help the war? As of right now, the Ministry is a tool to be used by both sides as best they can — by all three sides. Honestly, Fudge and the Ministry, for the most part, are a distraction and a tool. Of course, you’ll see how I write the Ministry in the third story.


	34. Chapter Thirty-Four

Harry was sympathetic toward Draco , now Draco Black. Just one look at his friend told Harry how hard this was on him. They had all been expecting Draco to move in with Harry, just not this soon and not because he was being disowned.

Of course, if Draco knew how Harry was feeling, he’d tell Harry to stop feeling like that and that he was fine even if it was obvious that he was anything _but_ fine.

Sirius took them back to Grimmauld Place by way of the Floo, and Harry took Draco up to one of the Slytherin rooms in the house. Both boys unpacked the few things Draco would need immediately, leaving the rest in his bag.

They both knew, as did their friends, that this wouldn’t be where they stayed for much longer, so it would be stupid to unpack just to have to pack again in a day or too.

Actually, Harry himself had most of his clothes, books, and other things in bags, leaving out only what he’d need for the next two weeks so that it would be easy to pack quickly. Upstairs in the training room, Sirius had packed all but the barest necessities for training, leaving a single box in the corner of the room to put the rest in when it was time to leave.

Everything in the house was staying as wherever they were headed seemed to have its own furniture already.

“How are you taking all of this?” Harry asked Draco, knowing that he’d probably get the same sort of answer he himself had been giving out when asked about Cedric or the graveyard.

“It’s a bit hard to believe, but I’ll be fine,” Draco replied, just as Harry had guessed. Of course, it did help that Draco would be among friends and still had a powerful name, but it would affect him for a long time before he began to get over losing his name.

“Harry! Draco! Get down here, please!” Sirius called, and both boys shared a look before transforming and tearing from the room, racing to see who would be first to the bottom. Harry won because of his size, using it to skip steps easier than Draco’s fox.

“Boys,” Remus sighed and laughed a bit, shaking his head sadly as they changed back. “You’re just like Padfoot and Prongs were.”

Harry realized something and grinned at Draco before replying, “Well, it makes sense since we’re a Potter and a Black, right?” Draco stiffened for a moment before he grinned his agreement; all Remus could do was snort.

“Come on, you two, we’ve got some things to discuss,” Sirius said as he appeared in the doorway of the living room . The three followed Sirius and sat down on a couple of couches, the adults on one and the teens on another.

“Harry, you’ve seen pictures of the manor,” Sirius began, and Harry nodded. “Well, we’ve got it ready to live in, but everyone has agreed that we need more protection on the place.”

“What are you going to use?” Draco asked.

“We were thinking of using the Fidelius Charm, at least until the war is over and we can remove it again,” Remus told the teens.

“Who would be the Secret Keeper?” Harry asked almost immediately.

“Samantha offered to do it as no one would expect one of the Greengrasses to be the Secret Keeper, let alone the mother,” Remus replied, and Harry grinned slightly at the truth of the statement.

“We’re going to do the charm in three days, but we’ll bring you both there tomorrow to see the house and transfer most of your stuff so that you’ll be able to live there almost immediately,” Sirius added.

“Who’s coming to live with us?” Draco asked curiously.

“The Davises and the Greengrasses for sure,” Remus said, thinking it over. Harry was the only one to notice Draco blush slightly when he heard the Greengrasses mentioned; he made a mental note to ask his friend about it later. “I believe Samuel mentioned that Theo was going to be coming with them, and you know that Susan’s aunt has been trying to convince Susan and Hannah’s families to allow them to join you for the summer, even if their parents don’t.”

Harry had been in contact with Amelia Bones once or twice while she and Sirius had been writing at least twice a day back and forth. It seemed she was among the few to realize that there was a third side not under Dumbledore’s control that was still against Voldemort. She had agreed to try and get Susan and Hannah to the Black’s home for the summer so that they could train with their friends every day.

“We already know the Weasleys are going to be with Dumbledore,” Harry added a bit sadly, knowing it would translate to being unable to see Ginny at all this summer. “Still, Hermione agreed to talk to her parents, and I’m pretty sure Blaise will have it easy getting away from his mother.”

“What about Terry, Padma, Justin, and Neville?” Draco asked.

“Neville and his grandmother agreed to stay with us once Neville told her about the training,” Sirius said with a grin. “It was quite the amusing scene to watch when I picked you up and you were with Ginny. Augusta almost fainted from the shock.”

“Padma mentioned she was going to India with her family for a vacation,” Harry reminded Draco, “and Terry has too many family members to come stay with us. What about inviting Luna and her father?”

“I’ll look into that,” Remus promised.

“Is that all, then?” Harry asked after a moment of silence. “Because if it is, I think Draco and I could use some training.”

Draco groaned quietly, but didn’t complain.

“That’s it,” Sirius said with a nod and a grin. “Go have fun, you two.”

“As if it’s possible to have fun while training with this guy,” Draco muttered under his breath, making Harry snicker as he led the way from the room and up to the attic.

…

Harry woke up screaming, shooting upright in moments. Panting, he tried to calm his pounding heart.

Yet again, he had just seen Cedric die right in front of him, struck down by a flash of green light. The dream would then turn to the few memories he had of his parents’ deaths, using their words he had gotten from the Dementors during third year.

All he could do was be thankful for Silencing and Glamour Charms as they hid his nightmares and lack of sleep.

Getting out of bed, Harry moved quietly around the room to gather his weapons before heading up to the attic, silencing the entire room so that no one would wake up.

This was the third day back, and he had done it every day so far. Of course, everything would change a bit when they went to the manor the next day to move in after the charm was put on it. Harry was looking forward to seeing his new home later that day.

Opening a pouch of throwing knives, Harry began throwing them from fifty feet away , slowly moving further and further away to see if he could still hit the bull’s-eye on the target hanging from the wall at torso height. By the time he got to the other side of the room, Harry had gotten within the center ring with pretty much every knife he threw, though some almost missed the target completely.

Breathing only a little bit harder, Harry picked up his sword and went over to activate a dummy holding a sword in the corner of the room, moving back quickly as it scanned him to see who he was before going to the level it had been at the last time it had fought Harry. Typically, though, the dummy started upping the levels as it changed to match Harry’s new level after so much training for the Tournament.

Ducking a blow, Harry met the sword with his own to throw the dummy off balance a bit before swinging his sword again. The dummy blocked his swing, meeting it with a “ _clang_!”

Moving quickly, Harry caught the dummy’s hilt with his and twisted the blade the moment the blades were trapped, sending the dummy’s sword flying before finishing with the blade against the dummy’s neck.

Clapping from the doorway made Harry spin around, sword point aimed in the direction of the noise before Harry realized that it was Sirius, still in his nightclothes and his hair rumpled as if he had only just gotten up.

“Why are you up here?” Harry gasped out, still breathing hard. Sweat dripped off his nose and plastered his hair to his forehead as he studied Sirius.

“I had a feeling someone was using this room after we were all asleep,” Sirius said, pushing off from the doorframe and entering the room, “so I charmed the doorway to let me know when someone entered it during the night.”

“I’ve been here for over an hour,” Harry stated. “Why are you only coming up here now?”

“I decided to leave whoever was up here alone for a while before coming up,” Sirius replied. “Now, tell me why you’re up here at four in the morning, claiming to have been up here for over an hour at that.”

“Couldn’t sleep, so I decided to burn some energy training,” Harry said instantly.

“Harry, you’ve got circles under your eyes and look as if you haven’t slept in at least a week, or at least not for long,” Sirius stated, walking up to Harry and catching his chin so that Harry was forced to look into his godfather’s eyes.

Harry closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see the accusing looks in Sirius’ eyes, mentally berating himself for not putting the glamour on even if he had thought he’d be alone for a while.

“Harry,” Sirius said softly, “has it been like this since the Third Task?”

Harry refused to answer, still keeping his eyes closed. He didn’t want them all to know that Cedric’s death was haunting him in his sleep, leaving him unable to believe that it wasn’t his fault for his friend’s death only a week and a half ago.

“You can tell me, Pup,” Sirius said softly, but Harry just shook his head in denial, not wanting to tell anyone what he was going through. “Fine, you’re coming with me then.”

Sirius grabbed Harry’s arm tightly and pulled him from the attic and down to the kitchen. Once there, Sirius grabbed a handful of Floo powder and forced Harry into the fireplace before calling out, “Davis Residence!”

Harry was thrown into the Floo Network and stumbled out of a familiar grate, stepping out of the way just in time for Sirius to exit from the fireplace gracefully. All Harry could do was glare at Sirius as his godfather took the pot of Floo powder and put it in his cloak so Harry couldn’t grab it.

“Sirius!” Harry growled. “What are we doing here?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Samuel said as he stepped into the room, waving his wand to light some of the candles around the room.

“Harry here needs to talk to Tracey _now_ ,” Sirius stated, his arms crossed as he gave Harry a hard look. “It appears he’s been hiding the fact that he isn’t sleeping very well at all. I found him in the training room just a few minutes ago, and he had already been in there for at least an hour. Look at the circles under his eyes.”

Harry felt Samuel’s gaze on him, but didn’t look the man in the eye as he tried to think of a way home that wouldn’t leave him exposed to being kidnapped.

“Come on, Harry,” Samuel said quietly, moving to put a hand on the small of Harry’s back to lead him upstairs. He tried to fight it, but both men kept him moving until they were at the door to Tracey’s room. “Tracey, can you get up, please?” Samuel called through the door as he knocked on it.

Movement in the room told the three men that Tracey was awake and moving. Moments later, she opened the door and was shocked to see Harry and Sirius there.

“What’s going on?” she asked sleepily, though her eyes were alert. It only took her a few moments to see the circles under Harry’s eyes, her own eyes narrowing as the normally light blue turned frosty. “Harry, have you been sleeping?”

“That’s why we’re here,” Sirius stated. “I want to lock you both in a bedroom and have you make him talk. We won’t let you out until he talks.”

“Sure,” she stated in a hard tone, sharing the hard look that Sirius had been wearing since finding Harry training at such an early hour as she looked at her almost-twin. “Get in here, Harry.”

Tracey grabbed his arm and dragged him into her bedroom, the door locking behind them.

Harry hadn’t been in Tracey’s room often, even when he’d been living here, so he took a moment to appreciate the sky blue walls, silver trimming, and green carpet before she forced him to sit down on her bed, which was still a mess as she had only gotten out of it moments before. Sitting down next to Harry, Tracey took his hand and just sat there, waiting. They both knew her questioning him wouldn’t make him talk, not for something like this.

The room was silent for a full hour before Harry finally sighed, shaking his head sadly as sleep tried to take over again. He knew he’d soon be asleep, which would give Tracey the answers she was looking for as he’d soon be screaming again.

“It keeps replaying every night in my sleep,” Harry murmured softly, not bothering to elaborate as there was no need. “Every night I see him standing there next to me, as worried as can be by our new surroundings and my last words. Then I hear him say ‘Kill the spare,’ before ‘Avada Kedavra,’ and a flash of green light shoots at Cedric in slow motion, hitting him. All I can do is watch as his body falls slowly, hitting the ground with dead eyes, nothing I could do.

“Whenever I wake up, it feels like it was my fault more and more. He wouldn’t have died if I hadn’t suggested we both take the Cup and I had taken it instead. If I had put the pieces together, he’d still be alive, looking for a job at the Ministry or someplace else, not dead with his parents mourning.”

Harry put his head into his hands, feeling hopeless as he thought about the dreams and the feelings they invoked in him. Tracey began to rub his back slowly.

“Harry, we’ve been telling you over and over that it isn’t your fault,” she said softly. “Cedric didn’t die by your hand, did he? Did you purposely tell him to take the Cup so that he’d die because you knew it would happen?” Harry shook his head slightly. “That’s right, you didn’t! Harry, in this you’re just as much of a victim as Cedric was, possibly even more so because you’ve got the survivor’s guilt from it.”

Harry sighed, but knew that Tracey was right about the survivor’s guilt and that he hadn’t killed Cedric on purpose. What he couldn’t agree with was the idea that he was just as much of a victim as Cedric when he was alive and Cedric was dead.

“You _are_ a victim, Harry, you _are_ ,” Tracey said emphatically. “Even if you’re the one alive, the emotional trauma you’re going through just proves that you’re a victim just as much as Cedric, just in a very different way.

“Trace, I can’t…” Harry couldn’t even figure out what he wanted to say.

“If you don’t believe me, then think about what you told Ginny after the Chamber,” Tracey stated. “Think about what Cedric told you when he came out of the wand, what his parents say, what Ginny says; bloody hell, Harry, think about what _everyone_ has been saying since that night!”

Closing his eyes, Harry allowed words to come back to the forefront of his mind, and he realized they were all saying he wasn’t the reason Cedric had died. Even his own words two years ago stated that it was Voldemort’s fault, Pettigrew’s fault, Barty Crouch Jr.’s fault, but it wasn’t _his_ fault.

“Trace, I can’t take the dreams much longer,” Harry gasped through sobs he hadn’t even realized he had been letting out as he remembered the words of others. “They’re eating me up inside, burning themselves onto the back of my eyelids so that I see Cedric or my parents dying every time I close them for more than just a moment.”

“Oh, Harry,” she sighed, wrapping her arms around him as he put his face into her neck and cried over the memories, the pain. “It’ll be hard for a while, and you’ll be fighting to keep going, but you’ll make it, and in the end, you’ll be stronger for this. Turn your emotions, your memories, into learning how to beat the bastard. You’ll get your revenge on the people who have ruined your life so thoroughly, but you need to fight what you’re feeling right now so that you’ll have the chance to do it .” His only response was to sigh, but he nodded his head slowly.

Harry couldn’t tell how long they sat holding each other, even after he was out of tears. Tracey kept up a steady stream of calming words until he finally succumbed to sleep.

When he woke up the sun was shining in the window. Looking around, he discovered he was lying in Tracey’s bed properly, and Tracey was sitting at her desk, writing in her Journal. Harry sat up, put on his glasses, and blinked at the light flooding the room.

“What time is it?” he asked softly, and Tracey turned to see that he was awake.

“Just past four in the afternoon,” she replied. Harry was so shocked that he had slept that it must have shown on his face. “Mum, Dad, Remus, and Sirius all said it was the emotional and physical exhaustion kicking in at the same time. You needed the sleep, so your body gave it to you.”

“No nightmares,” Harry whispered. “Wait, did I have any nightmares?”

“You slept peacefully, though you were frowning slightly the entire time,” Tracey said, putting her pencil down on the desk. “Come on, Mum said to bring you downstairs for something to eat when you woke up. Once you’ve eaten, you and I will meet Sirius, Remus, and Draco at the new house.”

Harry got up and moved slowly to be sure he was awake before following Tracey downstairs into the kitchen. Daniella was there and smiled when she saw him. Soon enough, he had a plate with some leftover roast on it from the night before, or so he gathered, and Tracey was snacking on some biscuits as he ate.

When he finally finished, Tracey dragged him to the Floo and told him to go to “Marauder Manor.” Grinning, Harry did as ordered, swirling out of sight into the green fire.

When Harry got there, he was in a room that seemed to _only_ house the Floo as it was a small room with a place for cloaks and shoes, most likely for guests.

Dusting himself off, Harry waited for Tracey, who appeared a moment later. Together, they set off into the new house, and they were shocked to realize the word manor really did describe the house.

While it had a homey feeling, the entire place reminded Harry of Tracey’s house on a larger level. There was a corridor leading off into different rooms including a large enough living room to hold a party with all his friends in it, a kitchen with a few house-elves, a dining room to seat thirty, another dining room to seat more like eighty people, and then there was a stairway that went both upstairs and down.

Downstairs, the entire place was a training area, half of it like the attic on a larger scale — more like the Room of Requirement, if he thought about it — and the other half a swimming pool. There was a doorway off to the side that led to a very nice potions lab with even a few areas for personal potions that could be warded to keep others out.

The second floor was mostly made up of a library and a few studies that were obviously for the different adults that would be living there for the next little while. Up on the third floor were about twenty moderate-sized bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bathroom and shower; as with Grimmauld Place, some were in each color of the four Houses. Finally, the fourth floor had a four master bedrooms and a smaller bedroom that was larger than the ones downstairs.

It was obvious the final, smaller, bedroom on this floor was Harry’s as the walls had the same design and spell on them as his room at Grimmauld Place did. The difference was the ceiling worked almost identically to the Great Hall’s ceiling, showing the sky depending on the time of day, and the floor beneath them was a forest green carpet. Plus, when they looked in his wardrobe and dresser, they found Harry’s clothes already unpacked.

When the pair went outside after being amazed by the inside, they grinned and shook their heads as they had finally found the three they were looking for.

Draco’s blond hair was shining in the sun as he flew around the Quidditch Pitch with a Quaffle under his arm. He and Sirius were trying to score against Remus and failing miserably because Sirius was not a very good Chaser.

“Harry’s awake!” they heard Draco call as he caught sight of them after scoring.

Just a few seconds later, all three were landing in front of the pair, Sirius and Remus looking more worried than Draco, though all there were certainly worried.

“Are you okay, Cub?” Remus asked, looking Harry up and down. “How are you feeling?”

“Sleepy,” Harry said with a half-grin as he tried to shake off the feeling that always stayed with a person after a lot of sleep or not enough.

Sirius snorted while Draco grinned and Tracey just rolled her eyes.

“He’s only been awake for an hour at most,” she informed the three, “and while you all know it he doesn’t realize he fell asleep at around six or so.”

“I did?” he asked, blinking in surprise. It hadn’t felt like it was six when he fell asleep.

“Yeah,” she replied. “I had to call Sirius and my dad to let me out because you were asleep.”

“We came in and got you settled in her bed,” Sirius supplied. “You had tears on your face still, by the way,” he said more quietly, but Harry wasn’t all that embarrassed by Draco and Tracey knowing about it.

“I’ll be okay,” he sighed. “It might take a while, but I’ll be fine in the long run. Just bear with me not sleeping much for a few weeks, okay?”

Draco nodded right away, but Sirius and Remus looked over at Tracey, who nodded slightly, before agreeing. When Harry caught her eye, he understood: She hadn’t told anyone what the problem was, just told them that he had told her and was working on getting over it.

“Now come on, I want a chance to use that new training room,” Harry said with a grin as Draco groaned and Tracey giggled almost silently.

“You just live to torture him, don’t you, Harry?” she asked quietly as they walked towards the house, Draco going to put his broom away first.

“You know it,” he replied with a grin before taking off at a run and calling, “Race you!”

He heard a mixture of a laugh and a growl before Tracey raced to try and catch up to him.

…

Albus Dumbledore looked down at the little, silver object in front of him, frowning a little with no twinkle in his eyes. A scene of Harry Potter racing across a lawn was visible to him, Tracey Davis catching up and tackling him before tickling the boy.

Tapping the object with his wand just before they reached the house, Dumbledore put it away, his mind full of worry.

He knew that if he could find Harry with a simple object like that, which wasn’t as good as normal scrying was, then that meant Lord Voldemort could find Harry just as easily.

This couldn’t be a good thing, not with the Prophecy and Lord Voldemort knowing half of it while trying to get the other half in the Department of Mysteries.

No, Albus Dumbledore now knew that Harry wasn’t safe with his friends and family, or at least not those specific friends. Harry Potter had to be moved to a place where Dumbledore could watch and protect the boy for his own good. If he didn’t keep the boy alive, Voldemort would take over without being stoppable.

Sighing, Albus Dumbledore tried to devise a way to get a hold of the teen.


	35. Chapter Thirty-Five

_Ginny: We’ve left the Burrow for the summer._

_Harry: Do you know why?_  
  
_Fred: Our parents are part of this secret group…_  
  
_George: Known as the Order of the Phoenix._  
  
_Ginny: They won’t let us in on any of the meetings, but it’s a group formed to fight against Voldemort as Fudge controls the Prophet and is turning people away from the idea of him being back. It’s under a Fidelius Charm, so we can’t tell you where we are._  
  
_George: Luckily, Fred and I had this great invention idea…_  
  
_Fred: Just before coming here…_  
  
_Both: Extendable Ears!_  
  
_Ron: They’re really good. We can hear the meetings as long as Mum doesn’t know. Unfortunately, they have a wire, so it’s easier to get caught…_  
  
_Harry: Can’t you find a way to make it wireless? Maybe leave something in the room that transmits to another set of things to put in the ear so that it’s harder to catch?_  
  
_Twins: Brilliant idea Harry! We’ll have to get on that…_  
  
_Harry: Using those thousand Galleons well, then boys?_  
  
_Ron: *Gapes* YOU’RE the one who gave them the money?_  
  
_Harry: Keep it to yourself. I’m their silent investor._  
  
_Twins: Quite well, Harry._  
  
_Ginny: Hopefully the wireless idea will work once Mum realizes that we’ve got the wired ones… Maybe we should use the wire ones in pairs even after we’ve got wireless ones so that they won’t know we’ve got another way to listen in once they catch us, thinking they’ve got us beat._  
  
_Harry: Very Slytherin of you Ginny. You four keep it quiet that you have the Journals. Ron, don’t use them unless you’re completely sure NO ONE can see you with it. Otherwise, just keep it up, and I’ll talk to you soon._

…

“Sirius, what’s the Order of the Phoenix?” Harry asked as they headed to the Manor to set up the Fidelius Charm.  
  
“It’s a group Dumbledore formed during the first war against Voldemort to fight him,” Sirius replied without really thinking about it. “Your parents, Remus, and I were among the members.” Harry silently added Pettigrew to that list. “Wait; don’t tell me he’s formed it again.”  
  
“Unfortunately,” Harry sighed. “The Weasleys are stuck at Headquarters for the summer.”  
  
“At least they’re in a good place to get information,” Remus said, coming up behind them. “Dumbledore normally finds out things most don’t somehow.”  
  
“The twins are figuring out a way to make their new Extendable Ears wireless so that their Mum won’t realize they can still listen when the wired ones are found,” Harry said, and the two Marauders grinned .  
  
“Why don’t we talk it over with Samuel? We might be able to find some charms or something that will help them,” Sirius suggested, and Remus agreed, though Harry knew it was half because of the information they could get and half because he just wanted to.  
  
“Come on, let’s go make Samantha our Secret Keeper,” Remus said, leading the way to the Floo to got to Marauder Manor.

…

“Onto the next matter of business,” Dumbledore said, quieting the arguments caused by guard duty schedules. “I feel that Harry Potter would do better under our protection than where he is now. A simple search for him can find him and show where he is, meaning he’s quite an easy target for Lord Voldemort.”  
  
“Do we know where the boy is right now?” Alastor Moody snarled.  
  
Dumbledore used the same object as he had the night before to show that he was walking around the Davis home.  
  
“He is at the home of the Davis family right now,” Dumbledore informed the group. “Now, does anyone have a plan that can be executed shortly that will retrieve him?”

…

Harry sighed a bit sadly as he walked around the grounds of Tracey’s house. Ankh was in his case on his shoulder, and Harry had his usual set of weapons that he used for training as he, Tracey, Astoria, Draco, and Daphne were going to train once the adults let them go back to Marauder Manor again.  
  
Until then, Harry was just walking around the grounds near the wards, wishing he didn’t have to leave this place. After four summers of coming here so often, it was hard to say goodbye to the place, but they all knew it was for the best. Better to get rid of a known place to live in a hidden home than to stay here and chance getting attacked.  
  
Of course, when he heard a muffled scream and looked up to see two cloaked and masked people holding Ginny between them, he was shocked. How had they gotten Ginny when she was supposedly safe for the summer?  
  
Walking towards his girlfriend, hand grasping his wand, Harry suddenly froze as Ginny shook her head and told him with her eyes not to come any closer.  
  
Unfortunately, he had gone literally a single step too far with his right foot on the outside of the protective wards of the property.  
  
Before he had a chance to pull it back in, the cloaked figure not holding Ginny slapped something onto his foot and Harry felt a tug on his naval that signified a Portkey, something that he had been avoiding since the maze.  
  
Suddenly, he slammed into the ground hard, barely keeping his footing as he held tightly onto his wand and felt an arm wrap around his torso. A hand pulled his head up as a mouth whispered in his ear.  
  
“Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix are located at Number Four Abchurch Lane,” a voice whispered in his ear, and Harry quickly understood what was going on as a house that hadn’t been there before appeared before his eyes.  
  
Two people grabbed him and forced Harry into the house, Ginny right behind him. Once they were all inside, the door was closed and locked with magic and a light turned on to reveal Albus Dumbledore, a woman with pink hair, and a bald, black man with a gold earring in his ear.  
  
“What the bloody hell is going on here?!” Harry demanded moving so that his back was to a wall as he looked around to see that he was in a living room, surrounded by adults with wands out, though not pointed at him. “Why was I kidnapped?!”  
  
“Harry, we’ve brought you here for your protection,” Albus Dumbledore began, but Harry spat at his feet before laughing darkly.  
  
“My protection?” he snarled, ignoring the gasps and reprimands for what he had done. “Did it not occur to you that I was perfectly protected where I was?”  
  
“Harry, I searched for you with a weak searching spell, and I found exactly where you were,” Dumbledore said, and Harry just laughed darkly.  
  
“I guess you didn’t pay enough attention to realize that we were moving!” he exclaimed, pointing a finger at the entire room. “All of you have just kidnapped me, and I’m willing to bet my family just can’t wait to get their hands on you once they find you now that you’ve gone and done this.”  
  
“You must calm down, Harry,” Dumbledore tried again, but Harry raised his wand and pointed it at the Headmaster.  
  
“This isn’t school, Professor; you don’t control me here,” Harry stated truthfully. “Outside of school, my life is my own life. Do you not remember our conversation after the Chamber incident?”  
  
The Weasley parents and two older redheads gasped when they heard him mention the Chamber like it was nothing, but not even Ginny moved out of the younger Weasleys. To them it was the past and nothing special, but the older Weasleys didn’t realize that Ginny had gotten over it, it seemed.  
  
Recognition flashed briefly in Dumbledore’s blue eyes, and Harry knew he had made the beginning of his point.  
  
“Well, this time I’m going to say it here, in front of a room full of witnesses, because I’m sick and tired of this!” Harry exclaimed as Ginny moved to stand by Harry, though her wand was pointed at the ground.  
  
“I am a bloody _person_ , not a chess piece for you to manipulate to do what you want me to!” Harry yelled, making a few people back away in shock at his anger. “First it was Quirrell and my broom, then bringing the Philosopher’s Stone into a school as if it wasn’t asking for trouble, and then the entire Chamber accident that almost ended up killing both Ginny and me along with all those students who got lucky! Then my third year, there were the Dementors that made me faint and shouldn’t have been anywhere _near_ a castle full of students! Finally, we come back to last year and every single bloody Task I had to go through for the Triwizard Tournament when I’m _three_ bloody _years_ younger than I was supposed to be to enter!  
  
“You could have stopped any of those, but you didn’t. What’s more, you’ve been lying to me my entire life. When my parents died that night, you sent me to the worst household possible with the Dursleys, and then you have the nerve to try and keep me there when a _real_ family wanted to take me in!  
  
“You are not God, and you do not control other lives,” Harry snarled. “I do not exist for you to lie to me and control me as if I’m nothing more than a puppet on strings that come off and reattach at your command! Until you bloody well realize this, I will repeat what I said three years ago: I will stop you from trying to control me using whatever means necessary.  
  
“Now, let me go back home or I’ll have to force my way out, and I’m not afraid to do what I must to get free.”  
  
Harry stood there, holly wand pointed right at Dumbledore’s torso as he glared at the Headmaster, his senses working to know where the others were and what they were doing.  
  
“I’m sorry, Harry, but I cannot allow you to leave just to be kidnapped by Lord Voldemort,” Dumbledore said, the twinkle in his eyes long gone from Harry’s words.  
  
Snarling, Harry threw up a shield to reflect the Stunners sent silently at him back at the castors, hitting at least five different people.  
  
“ _Stupefy_!” Ginny called out over and over again, Stunning those her parents were working with for him. Harry caught the eyes of the twins and silently told them not to interfere, and they nodded as Harry jumped into action, Stunning people with a whisper as he and Ginny took turns shielding.  
  
Finally, it was only Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Dumbledore left standing against the two teens, the twins and Ron watching from on the stairs where they were out of the way.  
  
“Let me leave — _now_ ,” Harry snarled, barely out of breath even after shielding more than Ginny had as he had more raw power.  
  
“How did you both manage that?” Professor McGonagall asked in surprise, looking around the room at the stunned Order members as her wand stayed steady, aimed at Harry.  
  
“It’s called practice and the element of surprise,” Harry stated, glaring at Dumbledore, who was still in front of the door. “Now, are you going to let me go or will I have to force my way past the three of you? Because, just so you know, I don’t mind fighting all three of you to get out.”  
  
Professor Snape lowered his wand, backing away just a step, but Harry understood; the Potions Master didn’t want to hold him here, not after watching that.  
  
“Two against two, not bad odds,” Harry mused, startling the pair as they turned to realize Snape had backed down. “ _Stupefy_!” Harry whispered, Stunning McGonagall in an instant, but Dumbledore shielded against Ginny’s curse.  
  
“I’m afraid I cannot allow you to leave, Harry,” Dumbledore said, “especially not with Ms. Weasley.”  
  
“Oh, Ginny’s just trying to help me get out of here,” Harry said off-handedly. “When I’m gone she’ll be staying here. So, are you going to let me go without another fight?”  
  
“I cannot allow you to leave,” Dumbledore repeated as Harry sent out the strongest silent Stunner he could manage, not moving his wand a centimeter as it shot out towards Dumbledore, who raised a shield just in time.  
  
Finally, too furious to control himself, Harry grabbed one of the basic, expendable throwing knives he kept on his person and threw it at Dumbledore, catching him by surprise as the knife lodged itself into the man’s wand arm, allowing Harry to run around the old man quickly. Reaching the door, Harry tapped it with his wand, trying to open it again.  
  
“Professor, help,” Harry whispered to Snape, who had been standing by the door, but his Head of House looked Harry in the eye, and the young Slytherin realized that the man couldn’t help him.  
  
Growling in frustration and defeat, Harry summoned his knife back to him, slightly enjoying the gasp of pain Dumbledore let out as he cleaned it and put it away before sliding his wand into his holster. Harry now knew that no one could summon anything from him as everyone with a colored Journal had a charm on his or her weapons to keep them from begin summoned by anyone but the owner.  
  
“I _will_ get out you know, right?” Harry told Dumbledore. The old man was trying to heal the deep wound in his arm that Harry was anything but sorry about.  
  
“I’m sorry, Harry, but you won’t be leaving here until school starts,” the Headmaster said, and Harry glared at the man before gesturing to Ginny and the twins, passing Ron with a look that said to use the Journal at the first chance to talk.  
  
The twins led the four to their room, and Harry locked it up with charms so strong that no one would be able to enter the room or hear anything from it until he released them, not even Moody’s eye.  
  
“They. Are. Going. To. Pay,” Harry snarled as he shook with suppressed anger, his eyes glowing with power and anger.  
  
Harry saw the fear in his friends’ eyes, but all of them knew that it was at the adults downstairs, not at anyone in the room, so Ginny went up to him and pulled him down for a kiss to calm him down. Not even the twins could complain when they saw how much Harry relaxed just kissing his girlfriend .

…

Tracey was frantic as they all realized that Harry was missing. All of the teens had gone to walk around the grounds while the adults packed, and Harry had just disappeared without a sign of where he was.  
  
When her father had searched the wards, he found that a Portkey must have touched some part of Harry’s body outside the wards and then pulled the rest of him through the wards, meaning something must had made him step out of them slightly.  
  
If only they knew what it was!  
  
Right now they were at the Manor because it had the best protection, but it did nothing to calm down the worried Slytherin pacing around in her room with Draco, Astoria, and Daphne watching her, understanding in their eyes as they, too, were worried about Harry. Of course, to them he was a friend or brother, but to her, he was her twin.  
  
Suddenly, her Journal was burning in her pocket, and Tracey froze as everyone pulled out their Journals, relieved to see that it was Harry pulling them into a conversation on the group mode.  
  
_Tracey: What happened to you?!_  
  
_Harry: *Snarls* I got kidnapped by Dumbledore, and I can’t get out!_  
  
_Fred: He and Ginny Stunned everyone in the Order but Snape and Dumbledore …_  
  
_George: And that includes McGonagall!_  
  
_Draco: How did you manage that?_  
  
_Ginny: Pure anger and frustration._  
  
_Harry: Look, you four are going to have to talk through Ron as the adults will be watching the four of us more than Ron as they’re my close friends and Ron seems to be only an acquaintance. Try to use the adults to figure out a way to get me out of here._  
  
_Astoria: Maybe we can use the Journals to make a sort of… Portkey through them?_  
  
_Tracey: Brilliant, Astoria! We’ll talk to the adults about it as soon as we’re done here._  
  
_Ron: I just got away. The adults are a mixture of shocked, upset, and furious, and it’s between Dumbledore and you depending on who’s feeling what. Pretty sure Snape is on your side, Harry._  
  
_Harry: Thanks mate. Ron, you’re going to have to be the one to talk to these four and the adults. The Order will be watching the four of us closely, so you’ll be freer to do what you wish. Pass on notes that are Disillusioned or so tiny it won’t be noticed if they’re in places I put my hand down like next to a glass or on my glassed or something._  
  
_Ron: Got it. I’ll get a hold of you four when I’m on, and you’ll heat up my Journal when you need me. If I can get away, I’ll do it as fast as possible. Just… Daphne, only heat it up once please._  
  
_Daphne: Why is it people are always telling me that?_  
  
_Draco: Maybe because you heat it up so warm and so often we hate it? *Gets slapped upside the head* Ow! Hey! Get away from me!_  
  
_Albus Dumbledore: Harry Potter! Get down here immediately!_  
  
_Harry: *Groans* That’s my cue to get told off. I’ll talk to you all as soon as I can. Please, get me out of here!_  
  
_Ron: They’ve got Mum angry at them, so I’d best go watch._  
  
“We’d better go let the adults know what we found out,” Tracey said, putting her Journal away and heading downstairs.

…

“They _WHAT_!?” Sirius exclaimed once Tracey had finished, and she backed away a bit. “I’m going to _kill_ them for this!”  
  
“Calm down Padfoot, we’ll get him back,” Remus said as Tracey whispered in her father’s ear about the idea Astoria had had.  
  
“Very good idea, Astoria,” her dad complimented, and Astoria blushed. “Let’s fill the rest in and get started on bringing Harry home.”

…

“Mr. Potter, you will be serving detention with whomever I assign for you to have it with for the entire first month of school once we get back, starting September second,” Dumbledore said when he entered the room, and Harry burst out laughing.  
  
“Why?” he asked through his laughter.  
  
“For attacking two professors,” Dumbledore stated, and Harry just laughed harder while saying, “No,” through his laughter. “Why not, Mr. Potter?”  
  
“Because, one, _Professor_ , this isn’t school; two, I was kidnapped and fighting my kidnappers; three… oh, wait I don’t have a number three, never mind,” Harry said, still snorting a bit. “Seriously, though, the rules state you cannot punish me for something done outside of school, and if you try to bring up the case to the Ministry, I can just tell them you kidnapped me, and I’ll walk away unpunished while you get convicted for kidnapping. Your choice.”  
  
“HARRY JAMES POTTER!” Molly Weasley yelled, and Harry looked at her blankly; he had been wondering when she’d blow. “You will not treat a professor like that! Serve the detention you obviously deserve! We are trying to protect you right now, and you’re making it almost impossible!”  
  
Harry couldn’t help it: He burst into laughter again.  
  
“Detentions I obviously deserve? I’m sorry, Mrs. Weasley, but I didn’t realize we were at Hogwarts; I could have sworn we were in London. As for protecting me, I was about to go under the Fidelius Charm myself before you all interfered and kidnapped me. We were at Tracey’s home to help them pack up their things before staying at our new home for the rest of the summer. If you hadn’t taken me away, I’d be with my family and some of my friends, just as protected as here and feeling a hell of a lot more comfortable.”  
  
His friends looked at him in awe for standing up to their mother while the Order looked as if he had hit them upside the head with a Beater’s bat. If he hadn’t been so upset by the whole kidnapping thing, Harry would be finding this quite amusing to see.  
  
“Can I go home now?” he asked politely, already knowing Dumbledore’s answer because Dumbledore liked to be in control and manipulate people.  
  
“I’m sorry Harry, but it would be unsafe to move you for the rest of the summer as you cannot tell us where the home is,” was the reply, and Harry scowled before using his Occlumency to blank his face.  
  
“Very well,” he said with no emotion, “but don’t expect me to be a willing prisoner while I’m here. I will do nothing unless I choose to, so do not even try to force me to do a thing.”  
  
With that, Harry turned on his heel and went back to the twins’ room, Ginny and the twins following him silently as he closed the door and collapsed onto one of the beds, groaning as he covered his eyes.

…

“Prisoner?” the woman with pink hair known as Nymphadora Tonks, though she only went by Tonks unless one wished to face her wrath, repeated with shock as the door upstairs was heard closing.  
  
Ron watched as everyone in the room looked shocked by the very idea of it, unable to believe that it was possible. It seemed not a single person in the room had realized how someone like Harry would take the situation they had just forced him into, though Ron didn’t understand why they hadn’t thought about it before kidnapping him. It was obvious that someone removed from his or her home, friends, and family against his or her will would feel like a prisoner and resent it.  
  
“None of you realize who you have just kidnapped and are holding against his will,” Professor Snape said softly in a voice the silenced the room as they all turned to face him. “This Slytherin boy with the famous scar on his head has more connections than almost any of you through the children of Hogwarts, and you’ve just made him furious. Mark my words, when his friends hear of this situation, not a single one of you will hear the end of this until he’s satisfied that you’ve all been punished in some way.  
  
“I think you should all remember that Susan Bones is one of his closest friends, and her aunt is Amelia Bones.” Ron saw Aurors Tonks and Kingsley, the bald, black man, stiffen as they realized Harry had the ear of their boss. “You all jumped at the chance to help the Boy-Who-Lived, but not a single one of you thought before doing so to think about the consequences. I wish you all good luck as the Slytherin gains his revenge.”  
  
With that, Professor Snape left by way of the Floo, leaving behind a stunned, silent room that Ron quickly left behind as well, heading upstairs to tell those Harry lived with of the ideas Snape had just given him, no matter how sickening the idea was of getting ideas from Professor Snape. _  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would now be a good time to mention that this is as close to “Dumbledore Bashing” (or Bashing in general) as I’m ever going to get? And that this is the big explosion that truly begins the Harry/Dumbledore conflict of the series, which began back in Harry’s second year after the Chamber incident?


	36. Chapter Thirty-Six

“So it’s got two dining rooms, a kitchen with a few house-elves, and a living room on the first floor. The second floor is mainly a library with some studies for the working adults staying with us. The third floor has at least twenty bedrooms painted like the old house was — all four school colors. The fourth floor has master bedrooms and my room. Truthfully, the best part is the basement, which is half training room, half pool. There’s an excellent potions lab attached to it as well, good for prank potions. Outside is a Quidditch Pitch and lots of room to run around in,” Harry said while sitting on his bed in the twins’ room the second day of his confinement; when he had fought against sharing with Ron, they gave in and let him bunk with the twins.

“I can’t wait to go there,” Ginny said, grinning at the description of the new house.  
  
“The potions lab,” Fred began.  
  
“Sounds like the place for us,” George finished, both of them grinning.  
  
“The entire house is brilliant,” Harry agreed. “It’ll be the perfect place during the summer. Maybe you can just stay with me next summer instead of coming to this terrible place where you’re confined to stay indoors because the adults aren’t smart enough to find a place with land around it to place the charm over.”  
  
“We’ll try to persuade Mum, but it’ll be tough,” Ginny sighed, and Harry privately agreed as they turned the conversation to memories of the prank wars from the summer before.

…

Tracey blocked a blow with her sword, forcing Daphne to move away with her own sword to try and find an opening.  
  
Ever since Harry had been kidnapped, Tracey’s time had been split between training and helping the adults work on making a Journal that would bring him home. All of the time spent training had exhausted her, but it also made her stronger and more knowledgeable when it came to moves. It made it a lot harder for Daphne to beat her now.  
  
“Man, Trace, you’ve gotten so much better in just the four days he’s been gone,” Daphne panted, her sword upright in front of her as she tried to regain her breath.  
  
Tracey said nothing as she launched another blow at Daphne, her mind already beginning to think of charms that could be used to make the plan happen even as she fought with her oldest friend.

…

Harry pulled down another book from the small but well-stocked library that the house had. No one bothered him in here as he read through the books, taking notes in his Journal on the spells that he didn’t know, sometimes writing down book titles to have Remus or someone else buy if they didn’t already have the book in their library.  
  
“Hey,” Ginny said as she walked into the library with a couple of sandwiches, crisps, and pumpkin juice floating behind her. “I brought you some lunch, and I thought I’d eat with you.”  
  
“Thanks, Gin,” Harry replied, grinning up at her as he pushed the book and Journal away to pull the food to him.  
  
“Anything good in those books?” she asked, gesturing to the pile he had already read the past few days.  
  
“Some good hexes and jinxes to use in both pranks and a fight,” Harry stated, opening his Journal to show her some of the best he had starred.  
  
As they looked at the Journal, Tracey sent a message to Harry, asking him to sign on, so they did, making it look like they were looking up spells and writing them down still.  
  
_Tracey: It’ll take another couple of weeks, but we’ve finally found pretty much everything we need to use your Journal to Portkey you to another Journal._  
  
_Harry: That’s great!_  
  
_Tracey: Oh, the Marauders and my father ask that you inform the twins that the unmarked owl headed to them has a charm that needs the activation for the Map to read the real thing. Until that’s stated with a tap of the wand to the paper, it looks like a letter without magic. The usual to wipe it clean again._  
  
_Ginny: We’ll let them know._  
  
_Tracey: Oh, hi Gin. He driving you crazy yet?_  
  
_Harry: Hey!_  
  
_Ginny: Nah. He’s been looking up spells for pranks and duels. It’s going to be quite useful when we get to school._  
  
_Tracey: That bored Harry?_  
  
_Harry: Not always, but yeah. I’ve been helping the twins with their wireless listeners, and they’re almost done._  
  
_Tracey: Make sure you bring as many as you can back here, okay?_  
  
_Harry: Of course! Who do you take me for, Draco?_  
  
_Tracey: I’ll talk to you both later._  
  
_Harry: See you, Trace._  
  
“You miss her,” Ginny commented as Harry deactivated the Journal a bit sadly, going back to his notes.  
  
“Of course I do,” he sighed. “I’m going to miss you when I leave, but at least I had already expected a summer away from you and got to say goodbye. It was unexpected and sudden when I got dragged away from her.”  
  
“You’ll see her soon, and then you and I will have time to ourselves once school starts,” Ginny said softly, resting her head on his shoulder, letting him wrap his arm around her as he kissed the top of her head.  
  
“Definitely,” he agreed with a smile while going back to his reading.

…

_Harry: Why, hello Fleur. What brings you to contacting me on this lovely day?_  
  
_Fleur: I was wondering what you know of the Order of the Phoenix._  
  
_Harry: Were you asked to join it?_  
  
_Fleur: I was. Have you heard of it?_  
  
_Harry: Who asked you to join?_  
  
_Fleur: Bill Weasley._  
  
_Harry: My suggestion is to tell Bill that, while you are against Lord Voldemort, you cannot agree to join the Order._  
  
_Fleur: Why should I not join?_  
  
_Harry: I was at Tracey’s house as my guardians helped her family pack because we were moving to a new, more protected home. While walking around the edge of the wards, I saw two cloaked people with Ginny, so I unconsciously walked towards them and put a foot outside of the wards — only a foot, mind you. They Portkeyed me away, and I find out that the people kidnapping me aren’t Death Eaters, but Order members under the orders of Albus Dumbledore to retrieve me because I was supposedly “unsafe.” My family and other friends haven’t seen me since, and this was almost two weeks ago._  
  
_Fleur: I will not join after hearing that. I shall tell William that I will stand against Voldemort but not alongside a group that kidnaps innocent people for no reason._  
  
_Harry: *Laughs* Nicely stated! That will throw the entire Order for a loop as no one outside the Order is supposed to know about it, and Bill hasn’t told you, so they’ll have no idea how it got out._  
  
_Fleur: It shall be funny. My only question now is how will I help you fight?_  
  
_Harry: When I get out of here in just over a week or so, I’ll send you a message of where to meet our Secret Keeper, and if you can prove that you’re actually you, you’ll be told the secret, and you can help out the parents of my friends. In a way, we’re basically a third side to the war; against Voldemort without being under Dumbledore’s thumb._  
  
_Fleur: Thank you, Harry. I will do that. I hope you get out of there safely._  
  
_Harry: So do I, and thanks for asking me. Hopefully, I’ll see you soon._

…

“Are you sure they’re working?” Harry asked the twins as he put the little piece of something that felt like rubber in his ear, glad there was a string on it to pull it out.  
  
“Trust us, we tested it over and over,” Fred said, and Harry nodded once before he began hearing voices. All four of them shared smiles.  
  
_“The first order of business is to find out how recruitment is going,_ ” the voice of Albus Dumbledore said into Harry’s ear. “ _William, how is it going with Miss Delacour?”  
  
“Professor, we may have a problem there…_ ” Bill admitted slowly, and Harry smirked as he had a good idea of what was on Bill’s mind. “ _You see, when she got back to me, she said she’d fight against Voldemort, but not alongside someone who kidnaps innocent people without reason.”_  
  
Gasps were heard over the earpieces, and Harry burst out laughing, making the others look at him oddly, but he made a gesture that basically meant later.  
  
_“How did she hear about this?_ ” Dumbledore asked once he had gotten silence. “ _Mr. Weasley, you did not mention it to her, did you?”  
  
“No, professor, not at all,_ ” Bill replied quickly, and Harry smiled mischievously, making sure the others knew who had really told her.  
  
“ _Did anyone else inform Miss Delacour about what has been going on here?_ ” Dumbledore asked, and Harry shook his head, still quite amused as the Order denied it.  
  
“ _Is it possible someone is under the Imperius or had his or her memory erased_?” a voice Harry had learned belonged to a Tonks asked.  
  
“ _I do not believe so,_ ” Dumbledore mused, and Harry knew that Dumbledore suspected him. “ _What has young Harry been doing since he got here?”  
  
“When he isn’t talking with Ginny and the twins in the room the three boys share, he’s up in the library, reading and taking notes on spells,_ ” Molly Weasley informed Dumbledore, and Harry growled at how easily they just _told_ the man everything he wanted to know.  
  
“ _And he has sent no messages through any of his friends out of the house_?” Dumbledore asked.  
  
“ _Anything any of the four children sends is checked and read over before being allowed out,_ ” Kingsley stated, and at that all four were growling. They were checking all of their mail!  
  
Harry had been expecting it, but to hear it said so… carelessly, as if they weren’t invading someone’s privacy, was just terrible to hear.  
  
“ _There has been nothing to his friends or family related to him at all; it’s all just normal conversation between friends,_ ” Kingsley finished.  
  
“ _Very well, we shall have to figure out how the information got out,_ ” Dumbledore said. “ _Now onto guard duty. Has there been any activity?”  
  
“I haven’t seen anyone out of the ordinary trying to get into the Department,_ ” Arthur Weasley said.  
  
“ _Nothing odd, no,_ ” most of the Order members seemed to be saying.  
  
Of course, the moment Harry heard Mr. Weasley say _the Department_ , he knew what they were guarding.  
  
The Prophecy, it’s always about that _stupid_ prophecy, he thought darkly as the meeting came to an end. Well, at least he now knew what the Order was up to and where all of their attention was centered.  
  
Something good came out of their listening in besides a laugh about the Fleur situation that he now got to explain to expectant Weasleys.

…

“Hey Luna,” Astoria said as the blond girl same over to stay for the rest of the summer. Her father hadn’t wanted her to stay at the Manor, but Luna had said she wanted to be able to stay with her friends.  
  
“Hello Astoria,” Luna said, looking around the room with interest. “This house has quite a lot of Plyernias.”  
  
“What do those do?” Astoria asked as she led Luna to the third floor to show her the Ravenclaw her room, truly curious after getting to know Luna over the past few years.  
  
“Oh, they give off a smell that makes a room or building smell brand new,” Luna replied brightly. Astoria thought it might be because she had asked with true interest.  
  
“You’re good,” Astoria said with a small laugh. “This house is new, or at least newly renovated. Anyway, this is your room for the summer.” Astoria opened up a door into a Ravenclaw room, and Luna smiled before moving to unpack.  
  
“The Blegnifs are telling me that there are others here,” Luna commented lightly as Astoria helped her put clothes away.  
  
“Hermione and her parents just got here last night,” Astoria said, recognizing the comment for the request it was. “Tracey and her family, my family, Draco, Theo, Sirius, and Remus have been here for two and a half weeks. Neville and his grandmother got here a few days after us. Maya, Graham, and Natalie are coming here with Natalie’s parents tomorrow.”  
  
“No Harry?” Luna asked, sounding a little disappointed.  
  
“Please, do everyone a favor and don’t mention Harry when Tracey is around,” Astoria sighed. “The day we were all moving in here, we were at Tracey’s house so that the adults could pack up what they needed, and Harry got kidnapped by Dumbledore’s group, known as the Order of the Phoenix. He’s there with the Weasleys and other people, and he’s furious at Dumbledore right now.”  
  
“That’s too bad,” Luna said sadly. “Why should I not mention him around Tracey?”  
  
“She gets really upset whenever he’s mentioned and goes to train. Whenever she’s not training, she’s helping the adults work on making a new Journal that will allow them to Portkey Harry here using his own Journal. Not even Theo can distract her for long.” Astoria turned to make sure the door was closed as it would put up a Privacy Charm before saying one last thing. “Truthfully, we’re all worried about her.”  
  
“There’s not much to be worried about,” Luna stated in her calm way. “From what you’ve told me, it seems Tracey has a bad infestation of Lollingdors, which make a person get upset easily when a missing family member is mentioned. They always go away when the person is found again. Theo also shouldn’t worry; Tracey does love him, but she’s closer to Harry right now, and it’s harder not to know that he’s safe, especially when we all thought he would be with us here. Hopefully, the Order will manage to fight the Wrackspurts shortly and allow him to come home.”  
  
Astoria began to smile again as her friend gave her opinion. In her own, weird way, Luna knew how to make a person relax more and become less worried.  
  
“Thanks for the reassurance, Luna,” Astoria finally said as they finished. “Now come on, let’s go do some flying outside.”  
  
Astoria took off running and heard Luna behind her as they raced to get outside before transforming, using the exercise as a way to get rid of the tension everyone was feeling because of Harry’s kidnapping.

…

Ron walked almost silently beneath the Invisibility Cloak Harry had lent him for spying on the Order. With Harry at Headquarters, the Order paid more attention to what he, Ginny, and the twins were up to than to what he, Ron, did, which was the whole point.  
  
One of the most important memories Ron had was from that day before the Third Task when he and Harry had been by the lake, talking with a Privacy Charm around them. He had been confused until Harry had finally explained what he wanted from Ron.  
  
“ _Ron, I trust you as much as I trust the twins and Hermione, and you know how much I trust them._ ”  
  
Yes, Ron knew how much his friend trusted his friends. Anyone with a colored Journal was well trusted by the leader of leaders, and it seemed Harry had come, in only one year after three of not being friends, to trust Ron. He didn’t feel that he earned the trust after how he had acted, but Harry claimed that’s why he earned it.  
  
“ _What I’m about to ask of you is more than I have the right to ask of anyone besides myself, but I have to ask you. If I could do this myself, I would, but you’re the only one who will be able to do this._ ”  
  
The boys had sat there silently before Ron had finally replied to Harry, telling him one of the most truthful things he had ever said in his life.  
  
“ _I’ll do whatever you ask of me because I know you’ll only ask me to do something that you’d do yourself if you could, and also because I know whatever it is will be aimed to do the right thing, not something dark._ ”  
  
Once Ron had said that, the way he looked at the world had changed, though he still couldn’t say if it was for the better or not. After it had all been explained, Ron understood why Harry had to ask him to do it: There was no one else who could do it as he was the only one in the position for the task.  
  
So, after a lot of discussion and ideas on how to do the job, here Ron was, sneaking around to spy on the Order as he pretended to be the one teen not friends with Harry, only getting along with him as they didn’t fight anymore. As long as none of the adults suspected he was friends with Harry and would pass on information to him, they let small things slip around him that they wouldn’t around any of the others, and all Ron did was file them away into his mind to tell to Harry later on.  
  
It was a tough job, but Ron was proud to do it.

…

Harry grinned in accomplishment as he held up a few pieces of parchment. On them were different maps. There was one of Grimmauld Place that Harry had had in a pouch on his belt when he came here, another of Marauder Manor from a different pouch, one of the Burrow that the three Weasleys had made, one of Tracey’s home, and a final one of Order Headquarters.  
  
None of the adults had an inkling of a clue that Harry had been slowly creating the last map as he moved around the house to empty areas. Of course, only the one of Grimmauld Place was completely finished with all the charms, but the others were almost done as Tracey used the instructions from Harry’s book to remind him how to make one.  
  
By the time he left Headquarters, the Weasley teens would have a working Map to use of Headquarters while he would be able to duplicate it into spare Maps and into their Journals at a later date.  
  
Looking down at his emerald-green Journal that had a conversation with Tracey on it from about half an hour before, Harry pulled out his wand and began charming the most important Map of the group, at least for now.  
  
A few hours, some sandwiches, and four glasses of pumpkin juice later, Harry was able to proudly collect Ginny and the twins holding a piece of parchment in his hand.  
  
“Is it done?” they all asked almost in sync once the door was closed on the boys’ room.  
  
“I Solemnly Swear I am Spying on the Order,” Harry stated with a grin, tapping the Map with his wand before laying it out on his bed for them all to look at.  
  
In front of them was a map of headquarters, and the twins were smiling the smile that most ran away from as it usually meant someone was about to be pranked. Of course, all it did was make Harry smirk as he watched them point out different dots to the other while whispering back and forth.  
  
“You just love this, don’t you?” Ginny asked, moving over to Harry and wrapping an arm around his waist.  
  
“Oh yeah,” Harry agreed, “especially if it’s something that will upset Dumbledore and his Order. Besides, knowing the twins, they’ll also use this to help spy on them even when I’m back home.”  
  
“I’m going to miss having you here, even if I know it’s best you’re out from under Dumbledore’s thumb,” Ginny sighed, and Harry privately agreed as he didn’t want to leave Ginny but knew he had to.  
  
“Harry, we get to keep this, right?” Fred suddenly asked, looking up at Harry, who grinned and nodded. “Excellent!”  
  
“Just make sure you remember to keep on getting information from the Order once I’m gone,” Harry reminded them, and both boys just waved a hand in Harry’s direction without turning away from the Map.  
  
“Come on, let’s leave these two with their new toy,” Ginny said in amusement, and they both laughed quietly as they left the room to go to the library. “So, are you going to work on the other Maps while you’re still here?”  
  
“I’ll finish the set for the four of you before I leave,” Harry replied as he settled down on a couch in the room. “When I get back home, I’ll work on the others when I’ve actually got free time to make them.”  
  
“At least you know the twins will put them to good use,” Ginny remarked, also sitting on the couch and moving closer to Harry. Harry looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.  
  
“And you won’t be using them just as much as the twins?” Harry asked with a touch of sarcasm.  
  
“You know me so well,” Ginny said with a grin before leaning up to kiss him.  
  
Harry returned it enthusiastically as they didn’t get much alone time, not in this house. It was nice just to have a bit of a chance to relax in this place, and Ginny always helped it happen.

…

Tracey stood in front of the two Marauders and her father, a black book in her hands as she waited to hear their verdict.  
  
It had been three weeks since Harry had been taken by Dumbledore, and Tracey was exhausted from how much time she had spent training or working on this one Journal just to alleviate her worry that just didn’t seem to go away.  
  
While she knew that Harry was perfectly fine, she couldn’t help but be worried for him. There was a difference between knowing she would have to allow Harry to be on his own for a while like during the Tournament the day before and having it sprung upon her so suddenly.  
  
As much as she hated to admit it, four years of being basically twins with Harry had made it hard to be away from him like this, especially not knowing what Dumbledore could do to try and control him.  
  
In the future she might feel this way about Theo, but right now Harry was the closest person to her in her life, at least for a while longer. At least the others understood it and just tried to distract her as much as they could.  
  
“I believe…” her father began, and Tracey concentrated on him more, looking for a hint of his decision. Then, he smiled, and Tracey was able to relax even before he finished his thought. “That we have finally finished the Portkey for Harry.” __  



	37. Chapter Thirty-Seven

Harry stood in the middle of the bedroom he had stayed in for the past three weeks, everything he owned on his person as he held his deactivated Journal in his hand. The twins and Ginny were in the room with him to say goodbye before he gave the Order one of the largest shocks they would probably ever have.

“Thanks for the stuff, you two,” Harry said, patting one of the pouches he had filled with the supplies the twins had made in the past three weeks or so.  
  
“No problem, Harry,” Fred said.  
  
“Yeah, and thanks for the Maps,” George added with a grin as he and Fred patted their pockets, the sound of parchment moving just barely audible.  
  
“Tell Ron thanks for me, okay?” he requested, and all three nodded, though Harry knew they didn’t understand why he wanted them to thank Ron.  
  
“We’ll see you in a month, Harry,” Ginny said, moving to hug him one last time before backing away.  
  
“It’ll be September before we know it,” Harry replied as he opened the Journal. Tracey had told him that the next time he activated it the Portkey would take him home. “I’ll see you all then. Please, find a way to get the reaction of the Order to me so that I have something to laugh at.”  
  
All four of them chuckled before Harry placed a finger onto the parchment, activating the Journal just moments before he felt a tug on his naval followed by the feeling of being pulled away.  
  
He suddenly hit the ground and fell to his knees, the Journal falling from his hands as he instinctively opened them to check his fall.  
  
“Oof,” he groaned, and that was all he had time to do before something crashed into him.  
  
Looking up, Harry smiled as Tracey hugged him tightly, the pair surrounded by everyone now staying at the house. They all looked relieved and happy to see him again.  
  
“Hey Trace,” he whispered softly, hugging her back before slowly standing up.  
  
Once she finally let go, Harry was slightly surprised to see her eyes were shinier than usual, as if she was holding back tears. The others had told him about how she had been acting, but he hadn’t realized it had gotten to be this bad.  
  
Of course, looking her over once more, Harry realized the emotion probably came from the fact that she was obviously exhausted and needed to sleep for a while. He would make sure she got some sleep in a little.  
  
“Hey guys,” Harry then greeted the others, grinning at them. That was all it took for the others to rush forward.  
  
“We were so worried about you,” Sirius said as he crushed Harry in a hug. “I know you were talking to everyone through the Journals daily, but it was still hard.”  
  
“I’m fine, Padfoot,” Harry said, laughing as he slowly pushed Sirius away from him, preferring to be able to breathe.  
  
“We know, Cub, but it’s still been hard,” Remus said, giving Harry a light hug before allowing Samuel and Daniella to hug him.  
  
“Maybe now that you’re back, Tracey will go back to normal again,” Astoria whispered into Harry’s ear as he bent down to hug her. All Harry could do was smile sadly and shrug a shoulder.  
  
“Here’s your Journal,” Draco said, holding out the mentioned object, which Harry took with thanks in his eyes. The blond just nodded and moved aside.  
  
This went on until Maya, Graham, Natalie, Luna, Daphne, Theo, Blaise, Hannah, Susan, Justin, Hermione, and Neville had all welcomed him back. Then it got awkward until Draco spoke up again.  
  
“So, Potter, how was it being surrounded by Gryffindors for three weeks?” he asked with a smirk.  
  
“I’m not sure, Black, why don’t you tell me?” Harry retorted, gesturing to all the Gryffindors in the room. Draco’s eyes widened slightly when Harry used his new surname, but he took it in stride and just grinned.  
  
“Well, they’ve been obnoxious quite a bit, but it’s bearable,” he said, and both boys ignored the looks they were getting from the Gryffindors past and present until they broke down laughing, easing the tension in the room immensely.  
  
“It’s good to have you back, Harry,” Theo said as he stopped chuckling. “There hasn’t been half as much laughter here.”  
  
“I guess I’ll have to fix that,” Harry mused, a light beginning to form in his eyes that reminded the others of who he had been spending the past three weeks with.  
  
“Should we be worried?” Neville stage-whispered to Hannah, who looked Harry over once before nodding quite seriously. “Oh, good, I’m not the only one to think that.”  
  
Harry snorted as a few others shared worried looks. Then he glanced up at Tracey and raised an eyebrow in question, grinning when she nodded slightly. It seemed she was quite willing to prank the rest with him, though he would make sure she slept first.  
  
“We really did have good timing, though,” Samuel commented suddenly, and all the teens looked up at him curiously. “Harry’s birthday is in three days.”  
  
The aforementioned teen blinked and thought for a moment before realizing that it was true. Wow, time had certainly flown, he thought as a smile began to grow on his face, though only a small one.  
  
“I guess we’re going to have to figure out something fun to do,” Sirius said with a smirk, but Remus hit him on the arm sharply, making Sirius pout and everyone else laugh.  
  
“We will, but not the sort of fun you’re thinking of,” Remus stated, only making the others laugh harder.  
  
Still chuckling, Harry gestured towards the house and everyone headed inside, Harry in the middle of the group with Tracey right next to him.  
  
After promising the adults not to go anywhere near the wards this time, the teens were all left alone to head up to Harry’s room so that he could put his weapons away and change into some more comfortable clothes; he had come back to the Manor in the clothes he had originally been wearing, which were used for training, not hanging out.  
  
“How are you holding up?” he asked Tracey softly, settling down next to her on his bed as everyone spread around the room, talking and pretending to be ignoring the conversation.  
  
“I’m fine,” she retorted, and Harry rolled his eyes just as she had done whenever he said that after the Third Task.  
  
“And that’s why you look like I did two days before everything happened,” he stated, and she blinked up at him, startled. “At least I was willing to admit to myself that I couldn’t sleep and needed help, even if I denied myself it. Please, Trace, you need sleep.”  
  
“I know,” she sighed, slumping down and leaning her head on his shoulder, eyes closing. “I’ve just been so worried that only training and working to get you back here has kept me going.”  
  
“Just as training when I had those nightmares kept me going,” he muttered in her ear, and by the slight stiffening of her body, Harry knew that Tracey understood why he had been acting as he had been before. “Now, though, I’m back, and you need sleep, just as I did that day. After you sleep, we’re going to find a quiet corner outside and talk about this, got it?”  
  
“Got it,” she agreed, eyes unable to stay open, so Harry moved and let Tracey put her head in his lap. Within minutes, she was asleep.  
  
“Finally,” Astoria sighed, and Harry looked up to see everyone looking at him and Tracey with relief, though most were looking at the blond.  
  
“Thank you,” Theo said quietly, and Harry started slightly as he realized Theo had been sitting next to him on the bed, “for helping her when I couldn’t.”  
  
“Someday it’ll be you helping her when _I_ can’t,” Harry replied, understanding where Theo was coming from quite well. It was hard when someone else could take care of someone you loved better than you could, but in the end, it was always better just to be able to see that loved one helped.  
  
“And when that day comes?” Theo asked hesitantly, and Harry turned emerald green eyes to brown, wanting to look his friend in the eyes as he said this.  
  
“When that day comes, you’ll have my blessing as the one she views as a twin, just as I know Ginny already has Tracey’s,” he stated quietly, but with a determination that made his eyes shine brightly. Around the room, the others recognized something huge was going on between the boys even if they couldn’t hear the conversation, so they stayed quiet.  
  
“Thank you,” Theo said with true emotion in his voice, showing his gratitude.  
  
Nodding, Harry turned to the girl lying on his bed and slowly lifted her from his lap to set her against the pillows of his bed so that she could sleep properly. Theo tucked her hair behind her ears, and both boys moved away from the sleeping girl, gesturing for the others to follow them quietly from the room.  
  
“Hopefully she’ll sleep a few hours at the very least,” Harry said softly after the door was closed, and everyone else nodded. “Now, let’s go swimming in that pool in the basement.”  
  
Everyone grinned as he showed them that his shorts were actually swimming trunks before the others all hurried to their rooms to change themselves.  
  
Once they were gone, Harry sighed heavily, knowing that there was going to be some serious conversation going on in the house the next day as the information he had was passed on to everyone, including what Horcruxes were.  
  
It was going to be a long day.

…

Ginny and the twins grinned as their mother called them down for lunch. They had just enough time to put on blank faces before they entered the kitchen and Mum discovered Harry’s absence and began to worry. It would take everything the siblings had to stop themselves from reacting to whatever she did, but they would manage.  
  
Entering the kitchen, Ginny looked around and winced internally at the sight of the normal tray that was set up. It had become a normal occurrence for Ginny to take a tray up to Harry wherever he was at the time because he had refused to eat with the others in case they tried to do something to him.  
  
That her mother had a tray set up for him would make this all the harder.  
  
“Ginny, can you take Harry his meal before you eat?” her mum requested, and Ginny took in a silent but deep breath before speaking.  
  
“There’s no point,” she stated, moving to sit between her twin brothers. Ron, who was on the other side of the table and already eating, met her eye with a slightly raised eyebrow when she sat. Ginny just nodded slightly, and he went back to eating, obviously preparing himself for the explosion.  
  
“What do you mean there’s no point, Ginny?” her mother asked, turning to look at her fiercely. “Do you really think I’m going to allow that boy to starve even if he does think he’s a prisoner and deserves to be punished for what he did when he first arrived?”  
  
It was comments like these that made all four of the Weasley children staying at Headquarters glad that Harry had refused to eat with them. Every single meal was full of rude, mean things being said by their mother because she was still upset with Harry for how he had acted towards those people with his “best interests at heart,” as their mother said. All four were careful not to comment on their mother’s remarks for fear of facing her wrath while Harry was still in the house.  
  
“He doesn’t deserve to be punished for not wanting to be kidnapped or held prisoner, Mum,” Ginny stated, her right hand twitching to reach for her wand holster, but Fred grabbed her hand and held it against her leg under the table. “And why would I want my boyfriend to starve?” she added as her mother began to reach her breaking point.  
  
“He _attacked_ the ENTIRE Order when they were just trying to keep him _safe_!” her mother screeched. “Now you’re trying to _DEFEND_ him for it?! You are not the daughter I raised! If you were, you’d understand that we were acting in his best interests and he threw it back in our faces!”  
  
“And if you were my mother you’d understand that he had protection that you forced him away from!” Ginny yelled back as she tried to jump to her feet, only to discover that she couldn’t because the twins were holding her down.  
  
“Take him that tray and _do not_ come back down here until dinner!” her Mum exclaimed, pointing at the tray with her wand to add a single extra sandwich and a goblet of pumpkin juice.  
  
“There’s no point!” Ginny yelled, still being held down, though her anger was calming as she regained control of it. “He’s _GONE_!”  
  
With that, Ginny got out of the grasp of her brothers, pulled out her wand, pointed it at the tray, muttered a spell, and left the room, the tray following her.  
  
When she got upstairs, she collapsed onto her bed, the tray on her bedside table and the door sealed behind her. It was all she could do to breathe deeply and calm down.  
  
That had been three weeks of frustration and anger coming out in one burst, and everyone in the room but her mother had known it. Now, though, she was calming down and would soon be able to put it all behind her, even if her mother could not.

…

“ _What_ did she say?” Molly Weasley asked dangerously, turning to face the twins as Ron watched, horrified and fascinated at the same time by the events that had unfolded.  
  
Ginny’s outburst had been coming for days, but it seemed that their mother either didn’t notice or didn’t care as she continued to say things about Harry, Ginny, and the twins that shouldn’t have been said, not that Ron had passed on anything about his siblings to anyone.  
  
In truth, spying on the Order had been quite easy, but keeping his own anger in check had taken a lot more self-control that he had had even two months ago. It had taken listening to Graham Pritchard commentating on the Third Task for Harry while his friend had been in the graveyard to make Ron’s self-control increase alongside his maturity, but it had.  
  
Now, though, it was obvious that Ginny had been pushed too far, and it made sense as Harry wasn’t in the house anymore, so there was no reason not to react to the comments. No reason, of course, for the twins or Ginny not to react.  
  
Ron, on the other hand, had to play the part of the only Weasley child in school with Harry still to not have a true connection to him, so Ron couldn’t say or do anything to defend his friend without giving it all away.  
  
It was hard on Ron, but he did it anyway, knowing that his silence would only benefit people in the long run.  
  
“I think she said that he’s gone,” Ron said slowly, adding confusion to his tone as he stared at the door, realizing that the twins weren’t going to answer.  
  
“Is this true?” his Mum asked in a harsh whisper, and Ron turned to see her glaring at the twins, who were sitting there, unconcerned.  
  
“Oh, yes,” one of the twins — George, Ron thought — said while nodding.  
  
“He just disappeared quite suddenly,” Fred agreed, also nodding very fast.  
  
“ _When_?” their mother demanded, and Ron recognized her tone as the one that meant not to fool around.  
  
“An hour ago?” Fred asked George.  
  
“Maybe two?” George suggested, and they both shrugged, turning back to their mother, who was slowing turning a very deep red.  
  
“ _WHY_ DIDN’T YOU _TELL US_?” she yelled, and Ron put his hands over his ears to try and lessen the intensity of the volume, which was making his ears ring.  
  
“Because you shouldn’t have forced him to be here in the first place,” the twins said together, actually glaring at their mother.  
  
“He didn’t want to be here,” George continued.  
  
“So why should we have made it harder on him?” Fred finished. “You all made it tough enough on him, not letting him leave when he had _told_ you he had a Fidelius Charm on his home now.”  
  
“But _noooo_ , you couldn’t let him go to his family where he would be safe and comfortable,” George added. “I’m just surprised he stayed here for as long as he did.”  
  
“Maybe it had to do with Gin being here,” Fred mused, and George nodded in agreement.  
  
“Too right you are, twin of mine,” George stated, “that’s probably it.”  
  
“So you’re telling me that Harry Potter just _disappeared_ from the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix an hour or two ago, and you told _nobody_?!” their Mum asked the twins dangerously, her voice rising at the end of the question.  
  
Ron decided that the twins had a death wish as they shared a look before turning to their mother and replying, “Yup, that sounds about right.”  
  
All Ron could do was watch the show as his mother, Molly Weasley, screamed a wordless scream before running to the Floo to call in the Order, obviously in a terrible mood now that she had the news.  
  
It made Ron quite relieved that, even if someone thought to question him about Harry and his disappearance, he could truthfully state that he hadn’t been in the same room with Harry for more than a few minutes at a time the entire time the Slytherin had been there.

…

“ _I have checked the wards, and it appears that Mr. Potter used a Portkey to escape_ ,” the voice of Albus Dumbledore said over the wireless listeners the twins had created.  
  
_“How?” “There is no way he got a Portkey!” “Impossible!”_ were among the things said by those in the Order meeting.  
  
“ _I do not know how he acquired the Portkey, but I do believe that those of you watching both the incoming and outgoing mail would make sure that there was no chance of anything with any sort of charm on it got through,_ ” Dumbledore said, and Ginny could almost picture him raising a hand to silence the outburst from the Order.  
  
“ _What we must now concentrate on is finding out if Harry is safe or not,_ ” he continued, and Ginny heard something being placed on the table; it was light, if the very small amount of noise was anything to go by. The swish of a wand was heard before Dumbledore spoke again, “ _I cannot find him, which means he is very much more protected than before._ ”  
  
Ginny smirked at the sighs of relief from the Order. Harry had told them that he was going under the Fidelius Charm! He had _told them_! It was their own fault that they hadn’t listened.  
  
“ _I hope this has taught you all a lesson,_ ” Professor Snape’s soft voice said, a sneer obvious in the tone. “ _A Slytherin does not say that he had protection as Potter did if he or she is not sure of it, and he informed us all that he had a protected home that he was going to the very day he was captured by us.  
  
“All we can do is hope that he does not treat us as he does the Dark Lord’s followers, since we appear to have done more to him than any of them have done. I warned you when he first got here, and I will warn you again now that he is free: You do not wish to feel the wrath of his revenge, so you’d best make friends with him again before he goes after it._ ” Ginny heard Snape stand, stride to the Floo, and leave the meeting.  
  
“As much as I hate to admit it, Snape is good,” George said as the three Weasleys shared a look, and Ginny had to nod silently alongside Fred in agreement, blinking as the words went through her mind again.  
  
“ _As much as I don’t want to admit it, Snape has a point,_ ” Tonks said, and Ginny heard the pain she was going through to admit it. “ _I know that I was shocked when Harry said that he felt he was a prisoner here. How are we any better than the Death Eaters if we actually kidnap people and make ourselves look like the bad guys?_ ”  
  
“Another possible convert to our group?” Ginny suggested, and her brothers nodded, writing it down to inform Ron of so that he could pass it on to Harry.  
  
“ _We are working towards the greater good,_ ” Dumbledore said calmly, and everyone else who had been muttering quieted down. “ _Now, we must keep an eye on the three teenagers Harry spent so much time with. It’s quite possible that they could give us information on Harry in more than one way.”  
  
“I’ll be sure to keep them in my sights, Albus,_ ” their mother said, and all three almost growled at that.  
  
“ _If I may, I’d like to put monitoring charms on the areas they are the most so that you, Arthur, and I may keep a closer ear on what they’re saying,_ ” Dumbledore suggested, and Ginny’s eyes widened as she looked at her shocked brothers, all three unable to speak.  
  
“ _Very well,_ ” her Mum said, her father saying nothing, which made Ginny believe he did not agree to this at all.  
  
“ _I shall do this before I leave, then,_ ” Dumbledore said, obviously happy by his tone.  
  
Ginny pulled out her Journal and wrote a note on it before showing her Journal to the twins.  
  
_We can’t say anything aloud except what we don’t mind them hearing. Plan all your pranks, store stuff, and any other ideas in the Journals, and don’t mention Harry’s_ name, _even, aloud. I know you’re not stupid, but we have to be careful. We can pass disillusioned notes like Harry and Ron did a little while he was here, and we’ll do the same with Ron. Make sure you tell Ron the moment this meeting is over, just in case!_  
  
Both twins nodded, uncharacteristically serious looks on their faces. Ginny nodded back once before placing her Journal on the floor and listening again, but it seemed that the meeting was coming to a close, so she pulled the earpiece out and activated the Journal to tell Harry every little detail of what had occurred that day, knowing he would wish to know.

…

Harry had just closed his Journal after a disturbing conversation with Ginny about the Order when he heard Tracey beginning to wake up on his bed.  
  
Turning, he saw that she was sitting up and rubbing her eyes, so he stood and walked over to her, sitting by her feet.  
  
“Huh?” she gasped before opening her eyes and seeing it was only Harry. “Oh, hey Harry,” she said sleepily.  
  
“I guess it was your turn to sleep ten hours straight,” Harry said in amusement, and Tracey blinked in surprise. “It’s eight already, Trace, and your mum has dinner ready whenever you want it.”  
  
“Oh,” was all she said, obviously still half-asleep, but then she looked him in the eye. “Thanks, Harry, for making me sleep. I needed it more than I thought.”  
  
“Trace, I’m still having nightmares,” Harry sighed, moving closer to her. “Trust me, what you did for me almost a month ago was what I needed; I’m only returning the favor.”  
  
“Did Ginny help with the nightmares at all?” Tracey asked quietly, and Harry nodded, but there was enough hesitation that Tracey picked up on his unspoken words. “She helped with the guilt, but the nightmares are still there, aren’t they?”  
  
“Yeah,” he said, sighing deeply. “It was hard to relax there, which followed me into my dreams and made the nightmares stay just as intensely despite her help with my guilt and helping me relax.”  
  
“Hopefully being back here will help, then,” Tracey said.  
  
“Just like my being back will hopefully help you sleep and eat better?” Harry asked with a sly grin, making her hit him on the arm lightly and laughed.  
  
“You’re a pain in the arse, did you know that?” Tracey said, and Harry just grinned. _  
_


	38. Chapter Thirty-Eight

“So you’re saying that  _He_ created  _six_ Horcruxes, and you’ve all been searching for them for over a year without telling us?!” Hermione demanded, and the four teens who had known about the pieces of soul nodded, unabashed.

“Why did you keep it a secret?” Theo demanded, and Harry felt Tracey wince slightly next to him, so he gave Theo a sharp look that made him at least look embarrassed and a bit shameful for his words, even if they all knew he had good reason for saying them.  
  
“Isn’t it obvious?” Luna asked, and everyone turned to face the blond Ravenclaw. “If they had told you before now, then the blatnikof might have heard!”  
  
“What’s a blatnikof?” Astoria asked for the group, though Harry had an idea of what Luna was trying to say and was beginning to feel relieved.  
  
“Not _a_ blatnikof, _the_ blatnikof,” Luna replied. “They’re a group of tiny little creatures so small that they can’t be seen, but they hear things others aren’t supposed to know and pass on the secrets really quickly, making it so that the secret isn’t a secret anymore.”  
  
Harry had to smile a bit as it was Luna’s roundabout way to remind the others that they had kept the secret to themselves because, if they hadn’t and it had been overheard even in passing, others might have found out and that would have been really bad.  
  
“We told the kids not to tell you,” Samuel added from the doorway, surprising most of the group but Harry and Tracey, who had expected the adults to listen in from the other room.  
  
“I want you all to tell us something and be completely truthful about it,” Remus continued as the adults entered the room, giving the rest of the group of teens a neutral look. “Tell us that you would have been able to handle this information two years ago, even a year ago.”  
  
“I would have,” Draco and Theo said immediately in sync, and Remus gave them both a long look, obviously thinking it over.  
  
“Yes, you out of everyone probably would have been able to handle it,” he admitted, and the adults looked a little ashamed about keeping it from them as they thought about it, “but you did not know Occlumency at the time, and we don’t know if you fathers wouldn’t have gotten the information from you in some way.”  
  
Draco and Theo looked at the ground. It was obvious to anyone looking, especially Harry, that they realized Remus was correct about their fathers. Harry knew how hard it was for them to live in their fathers’ shadows, in a way, but there was nothing they could do about it but live with the problem.  
  
“We’d have rather kept this all from Daphne and Astoria,” Samantha said, and the mentioned girls gave their mother identical annoyed looks, “but they were here when Daniel and I realized the truth. Of course, Harry would also need more help than just Tracey, so we didn’t stop them from learning what they could.”  
  
“Plus, we’d have done research on our own if they had forbidden us,” Astoria muttered under her breath from Harry’s left, and he chuckled silently as Daphne added to her sister’s mutterings.  
  
“It’s not like we don’t already know more about the Dark Arts than basically anyone in the group besides Draco, Theo, and Harry.”  
  
Luckily for the two girls, no one besides Harry and Tracey heard their murmurs, though Harry had a hard time keeping a straight face at Astoria’s line, though Daphne did that immediately. He hadn’t realized she had noticed his reading in the Room of Requirement when he hadn’t been practicing for anything. Tracey and Ginny had, but only because he had wanted to explain that the reasoning behind it was to know as much of what Voldemort and his followers might use against him to better protect himself.  
  
“The only person we gave them permission to tell was Ginny,” Sirius added, breaking Harry from his thoughts. “If anyone earned the truth, it had to be the girl possessed by a Horcrux herself.”  
  
None of the others had any response to that fact as it wasn’t something even they could deny, despite their annoyance at being out of the loop for so long.  
  
“Besides, it’s not like we were doing any research or anything,” Harry spoke up, reminding his friends that the four of them were still there, listening. “Our job was mainly to keep an eye out for something that might belong to Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw around the school, nothing more.”  
  
“The lost diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw,” Luna said as she looked up at the ceiling, smiling slightly.  
  
“Yes, that’s why I looked at the statue that one time,” Harry admitted, smiling at his friend. “Thank you for informing me about it as we found the diadem. Your story made it easier for me to recognize it.”  
  
Luna only nodded, but Harry recognized the response to his gratitude and turned away from her to face the rest.  
  
“More than once we nagged the adults to let us tell you, but they always said no, the time wasn’t right to tell you,” Harry sighed. “Now I realize they wanted it to be something you could handle, and most of you wouldn’t have been able to handle this before…” Harry hesitated for a moment before finishing the sentence, “before the Third Task. At least, you wouldn’t have been able to handle all of it.”  
  
Harry watched as his friends digested everything they had been told, and as some slumped their shoulders in defeat and others softened, he knew that they had won this round. It had been lucky that the adults had finally come in and admitted their part in the secret keeping, for the others wouldn’t have believed them completely when he and the other three told them the truth.  
  
“There’s only one more left, right?” Susan asked, and all four nodded.  
  
“Do you have any idea where it might be?” Blaise almost demanded, and Daphne glared at him, making him stumble back a step in shock and fear.  
  
“We will be continuing the search while you’re all at school,” Daniel said, saving Harry from having to answer. “This final one will most likely be the hardest as we don’t have much of an idea for where to search.”  
  
“Maybe he gave it to someone else to hide,” Natalie guessed, and all of those previously knowledgeable turned to look at her. Harry felt shock running through his veins as he realized the possibilities of that. “It was just an idea,” Natalie said a bit defensively, and Harry realized they were just staring at her.  
  
“We’re not staring at you because it’s a bad idea, Natalie, but because it’s a _really_ good one that we hadn’t thought of,” Astoria told her friend, and the twelve-year-old blinked before grinning.  
  
“So I helped?” she asked hopefully, and Harry’s lips grew into a grin as he nodded.  
  
“You definitely helped, Natalie,” he stated.  
  
“Voldemort gave the Diary to my father,” Draco said softly, “so he might have given that Cup of Hufflepuff you mentioned to another of his closest, most loyal followers.”  
  
“I’d say Lestrange,” Neville hissed, his eyes narrowing at the thought of her.  
  
“It could also be Theo’s father, though — sorry Theo,” Maya reminded the angry Gryffindor as Theo nodded in understanding. “There’s also that Avery you saw at the graveyard, Harry, or any of the Inner Circle, really.”  
  
“All very good points,” Samuel said, “and we’ll take all of these suggestions as leads to follow. Thank you all for the ideas. If you get anymore, please, don’t hesitate to tell us as long as no one else can overhear you, though that’s only if you’re at Hogwarts when you think of it.”  
  
They all nodded in understanding. Harry then tried to figure out a way to get their minds off the dark thoughts Horcruxes brought to any decent person’s mind, especially Voldemort’s Horcruxes.  
  
“Last one to the Quidditch Pitch while transformed has to do the dishes!” he called out, taking off towards the doorway, transforming and hitting the ground on four legs the moment he passed through. Behind him, his friends were yelling at him “Not fair!” before transforming and following him themselves.  
  
With his sensitive ears, Harry almost swore he heard the adults chuckling before he was out of hearing range, panting with his tongue hanging from his mouth as he pounded away at the ground.

…

Fleur Delacour walked into the Leaky Cauldron during her lunch break at Gringotts. She had told Bill that she would meet him after work because a friend from her year at Hogwarts wanted to have lunch. It wasn’t exactly a lie, but it also wasn’t the truth.  
  
Harry had written to her and asked her to meet his Secret Keeper here sometime in the afternoon, so she had given him the time of her lunch and made plans to eat here.  
  
Looking around, she finally spotted a blond woman that reminded her of Harry’s two friends Daphne and Astoria, so Fleur gathered she was their mother.  
  
Weaving in and out of tables, Fleur slid into the booth across from the woman, who smiled and nodded at her before offering a plate of fish and chips to Fleur, who smiled back and gratefully took the meal, famished after hours of working.  
  
“You are Daphne and Astoria’s mozer, no?” Fleur asked, and the woman nodded.  
  
“Samantha Greengrass,” she replied, holding out her hand, which Fleur shook politely. “The kids told me about the Tournament; you did well.”  
  
“Zank you, but ‘Arry and Cedric did better than me,” Fleur said, shaking her head sadly to rid herself of the memories of Cedric. She knew that she, Viktor, and Harry had been hit hardest by his death outside of his closest friends with how much time they spent together, but knowing that still didn’t help one get over the pain.  
  
“But you were still chosen out of all of those from Beauxbatons, and you survived the Tournament,” Samantha stated. “That alone shows you’ve got talent.” The woman shook her head. “We’re not here to talk about the Tournament, though, but your wish to fight against Riddle.”  
  
Fleur understood who Riddle was and why Harry’s friend wished to use that name rather than Voldemort. The _Daily Prophet_ was doing much to discredit Harry, Dumbledore, and Voldemort’s return, so speaking of it in public, even in the corner of a pub under a spell, was not something one did.  
  
“’E killed Cedric,” Fleur said in a monotone, unwilling to show her emotion at the fact. “Zere needs to be somezing I can do to ‘elp against ze man — no, ze _monster_ — zat did zis to a great man. I want to fight to stop ‘im from doing zis again if I can.”  
  
“Would you be willing to train and help the other kids that train with Harry?” Samantha asked, and Fleur nodded without hesitation. “While working at Gringotts, would you listen for anything that might help us in the long run as long as it won’t get you in trouble? We won’t ask you to try to get the goblins on our side as you have your job to worry about, but any gossip you hear, we’d like to know about.”  
  
“All of zat I can do easily,” Fleur said. “And if you need anyzing more of me, please, just ask.”  
  
“We will,” Samantha stated while reaching a hand into her robe pocket. “Do not read this in here, and burn it the moment you’ve memorized it.”  
  
Fleur took the folded slip of parchment that was slid across the table, placing it into her own pocket before finishing her meal in silence, only now beginning to realize that Harry friend’s would allow her to help without asking much of her. It was something she was willing to do, even glad to do.  
  
“Zank you for ze meal,” Fleur said as she stood, her lunch break almost over. “Please, pass on my zanks to Harry and ze others.”  
  
“You’re quite welcome,” Samantha said softly, smiling a bit. Fleur turned to go but turned around again just inside the charms around their booth.  
  
“If you wish it, I am willing to join ze Order to keep an eye on it,” she whispered, just loud enough for Harry’s friend to hear.  
  
“I’ll pass on the idea,” Samantha said, nodding in acknowledgement.  
  
Fleur then left the Leaky Cauldron, not touching the parchment until she returned home that evening after spending dinner with Bill.  
  
_Harry Potter lives at Marauder Manor_  
  
Smiling a little in recognition of the nickname that Tracey had told her Harry’s father and his friends had once had, she burned the note, understanding that it was a Floo address for her to use if she wished.  
  
It seemed Fleur was on the third side of the war, but she hadn’t yet found anything to complain about.

…

Harry sat in his room the night of his fifteenth birthday, staring at the gifts spread out on his bed.  
  
It had been a day of Quidditch, Animagus fights, and gifts. Overall, it was the chance for everyone to relax from training without any of the unwanted tension caused by Harry’s being stuck with the Order. He had been glad to witness it, and his friends had been relieved to experience it.  
  
Now, though, he was a bit shocked as he held a sword not unlike the ones his friends all had: an emerald in the hilt, a snake carved into the handle, and a lion, an eagle, and a badger almost burned into the blade except it was perfectly smooth.  
  
The difference was that he had the ability to hold his new blade in one hand and Godric Gryffindor’s sword in the other and see very few differences between them, and all they did was show he used a slightly different blade from the man himself for they both felt perfectly balanced in his hand.  
  
Sirius had finally gotten him a custom-made sword — the one which Harry had been expecting for Christmas but never got or commented upon as he wasn’t supposed to know about it before now.  
  
It fit into the same sheathe as Gryffindor’s sword, so he now could put either one into the new sheathe, though he’d only use his own sword in it for now. Still, it was a nice thing to know.  
  
His other gifts had ranged from new Quidditch gloves and pads to novels and textbooks to pranking supplies. Sirius had been the only one to get him anything used for training, but Harry also didn’t need anything more, so it made sense.  
  
Ankh slithered from his place on Harry’s shoulder to his knee, licking Harry’s neck as he passed.  
  
“ _You’re very quiet,_ ” Ankh hissed, and Harry nodded. “ _Is there something wrong?”  
  
“No, nothing’s wrong,_ ” Harry replied. “ _I’m just thinking.”  
  
“About?_ ” the snake asked, and Harry grinned slightly as he realized his friend was trying to get him out of his slight mood.  
  
“ _About how the reason I have these textbooks, my new sword, and all of my other weapons is because of Voldemort,_ ” Harry sighed. “ _I’m going to have to fight him, Ankh, and I’m not sure I’m ready to, not after last month in the graveyard.”  
  
“That is why you are going to train and not fight him right now, but only when you’re ready,_ ” Ankh hissed, “ _correct_?”  
  
“ _That’s right,_ ” Harry admitted, realizing where Ankh was going with this.  
  
“ _Then do not think about the fight that has yet to come. Just concentrate on preparing, and you’ll be ready when the time comes.”_  
  
“Thanks Ankh. I think I needed to hear that from a new source other than Ginny and Tracey.”  
  
“You’re welcome, Harry. Now, get some sleep.”  
  
Grinning, Harry moved Ankh to where Hedwig was perched, ready to take off for the night to hunt. Then, he put his gifts away where they belonged before changing and getting into bed, his mind calmer than it had been even an hour before.

…

Blindfolded, Harry ducked beneath the wave of energy that was an unknown spell, though he was pretty sure only Stinging Hexes were being thrown at him.  
  
Samuel, Sirius, Daniel, and Remus had asked him and his friends how they had prepared him for the Tournament in general, but most specifically the final Task. They had commended the group in thinking up such creative training methods, and then proceeded to use them on all of the teens.  
  
Harry had to wonder if the others, especially Hermione, didn’t regret using these on him during the school year. At least he was used to them and could go through the motions easier during the first few days of training; the rest were almost complete novices at the tasks and had a much harder time at it.  
  
As Harry thought, he dodged left, right, down, and even jumped off the ground. There were times when he was forced to hit the ground and roll away, jumping back up to his feet immediately, just to escape a wave of silent attacks from more than one adult.  
  
Panting quietly and dripping sweat, Harry was forced through a large amount of time spent just dodging spells by instinct, longer than any of the others were able to last. Finally, though, Harry felt his body slowing so much that he was just unable to move very much.  
  
That was the time that he finally allowed himself to fall to the ground, knowing he would be hit a few times by stray spells before the adults could stop firing at him. All he could do was try his best to regain his breath while on his hands and knees, the black blindfold still around his head.  
  
“Very well done, Harry,” Daniel complimented, but Harry had no energy to do anything but regain his lost breath. “That was over half an hour this time.”  
  
Internally, Harry was grinning, even if his face remained only a mask of pain and exhaustion. Thirty minutes — the longest he had managed so far in the past two weeks since his birthday, which was when they had begun training them all with earnest.  
  
Then he felt Tracey’s hands pulling off the cloth from his face before helping him to a couch along the wall of the training room where he saw Daphne waiting with a water bottle once he was given his glasses.  
  
“Thanks,” he gasped after taking a long draught of the precious water.  
  
“Hard to believe you were blindfolded,” Theo said, and Harry looked around at his friends to see a little awe on their faces. “You were moving as if you could see the spells, not just sense them.”  
  
“Practice, lots and lots of practice,” Harry replied, making a face as he remembered hours spent just training on dodging both with and without his sight.  
  
“Something to look forward to,” Justin muttered, and Harry choked out a tired laugh.  
  
“Neville, it’s your turn,” Sirius called, holding up a fresh blindfold for the fifteen-year-old Gryffindor, who groaned but walked over there with his grandmother’s eyes following him from her seat in a corner of the basement where the other non-participating adults sat watching.  
  
Harry grinned at his friends and turned to watch his friend take his turn at one of the toughest training sessions they had had so far.

…

Harry woke up screaming silently again, a few tears in his eyes as he took in gasping breaths, sitting upright as he covered his terrified emerald green eyes with his tanned hands.  
  
“Harry?” Tracey asked softly, and he turned, lifting his head from his hands, to see that she was in his doorway again, just as she had been every single time he woke up from a nightmare. The pair had asked her father to charm his room to send her a signal whenever he got close to waking up from a restless sleep so that she could be there just as he woke up.  
  
The teen only gestured for his friend to join him on his bed, scooting over to make room as she slipped beneath the blankets next to him.  
  
“The graveyard again?” she whispered, and he grimaced, nodding in acknowledgement. “What was it about this time?”  
  
“Voldemort… he hit me with the Killing Curse because my Stunner didn’t hit his curse in the middle,” Harry muttered, but Tracey heard him flawlessly in the empty room.  
  
“Harry, it’s not going to happen,” she said firmly but quietly, turning to face him and look him in the eye. “ _No one_ is going to allow it; not Ginny, not me, not my parents, not our friends, and most especially, not _you_.”  
  
“I know,” he sighed, “it’s just… I can’t help thinking about how it’s a possibility if I don’t train enough or don’t fight well enough.”  
  
“It’s not going to happen, Harry,” Tracey ground out between clenched teeth, and Harry knew it was only worry for him that allowed such a lapse of her usual calm. “You’re going to beat that monster and live.”  
  
“Yes, but what if others die while I train and leave him alone?” Harry asked softly. He had asked this before but needed reassurance again at the deeply internal pain fighting to overtake him. “What if it’s viewed as my fault?”  
  
“If anyone thinks it’s your fault — and I’m including you in this, Harry! — then that person is an idiot,” Tracey hissed quietly. “You are fifteen and shouldn’t even have to be thinking about this or like this, even if he is back. This isn’t the sort of pressure you should be feeling, Harry, but I know you are so I think you should funnel this into your training, not into your worrying. What happens will happen just as what comes will come. All you can do is try your best and survive.”  
  
Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair , recognizing the truth ringing in his almost-twin’s words. This was what he needed to be reminded of at times, and Tracey understood the need, even if it was obvious she had a dislike for it.  
  
“Please, stop thinking like this, Harry,” she whispered, but Harry heard the plea in that low sentence. “You’re destroying yourself from the inside by doing this.”  
  
“I know,” Harry said softly, reaching out to grab her hand. “I’ll try, I really will, Trace, but it’s something all of us will have to deal with until this is over.”  
  
Tracey nodded and moved to wrap her arms around him, and Harry completed the hug, resting his head on hers. They stayed like that until both were asleep, each with their own side of Harry’s bed.

…

In three different bedrooms of the same floor as Harry’s room, four different adults sighed before heading down to the ground floor and the living room to speak in.  
  
“It’s eating him up inside,” Sirius said, a pained look gracing his face as he put his head in his hands and shook it back and forth.  
  
“This is most likely why Dumbledore has yet to inform him that the Prophecy even exists, let alone its wording,” Remus stated, he too looking upset, but more calm that his longtime friend.  
  
“I still believe it was the best thing to do, though,” Samuel sighed, and the other three nodded in agreement.  
  
“It was,” Remus said. “I was just making an observation. _We_ know Harry can handle this with the help of his friends; he _has_ been handling it for a while now, even. There will be hard times ahead, though, especially when it is a known fact that Voldemort is back, and that is when Harry’s friends will need to be there the most.”  
  
“They all will be,” Daniella said, “especially Ginny and our Tracey. Those three are closer than I think any of us expected them to be.”  
  
“Unfortunately, they have a lot in common,” Sirius whispered just loud enough to hear. “The darkness surrounding them will get darker as time goes on, but it will also be what holds them together.”  
  
“All we can do is try our best to help them when we can,” Samuel sighed, and all four adults fell silent as they dove into thoughts they would rather not have.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The “blatnikof” Luna spoke of was named after the very random word that had no meaning my English teacher gave us when I was writing this part of the story to write about just to see how creative we could get with it. It was a very amusing day, and I felt it would fit Luna.


	39. Chapter Thirty-Nine

Harry flipped Astoria over and pinned her hands above her head, grinning slightly as they panted. She scowled up at him while trying to push him off, but they both knew that Harry was using his larger size and weight to keep her there. Even better was that she couldn’t complain as Astoria did the same thing with her small stature, just in different ways.

“I win,” Harry said through his panting, and Astoria nodded in defeat.

Getting off of the younger Slytherin, Harry looked around to see that most were still grappling while Tracey, Neville, Justin, and Hannah judged. Tracey walked over to the pair, helping Astoria stand before turning to Harry.

“Your training has certainly paid off,” was all she said, but Harry knew she was thinking of their talk the week before. Since then he had been concentrating on training like there was going to be no tomorrow, improving with leaps and bounds.

“Good fight, Harry,” Astoria said once they had their breath back. Harry turned from Tracey, who had gone back to watching Theo and Draco grapple, to the other girl . “Pretty soon there won’t be any competition from any of us for you.”

“Maybe, but once school starts, the homework from OWLs will give you the chance to catch up and challenge me again,” Harry replied with a grin.

Of course, that was only if the Hogwarts letters finally arrived. It seemed the rumors Harry was informed of by those at Order Headquarters were true: Dumbledore was having trouble finding a Defense professor. At the rate things were going, they’d have only a day or two to purchase their supplies, which wasn’t much of a problem as all the teens had already gotten the _Standard Book of Spells_ for their year along with the basic supplies they knew they would need. Hermione had forced all the fifth years to get extra quills, ink, and parchment, expecting a lot of work.

Harry, being Harry, had asked Sirius to sneak him into Muggle London while they were there and got some normal paper and pens as well as a few bound notebooks. It would be quite amusing to find out how Hermione reacted to his using those for his school work, though he would turn in homework on parchment written with the pens, not normal paper.

“Good point,” Astoria admitted, also grinning. “Come on, let’s go sword to sword.”

Without a word, Harry walked over to where his equipment was and pulled out Sirius’s birthday gift from the pile, unsheathing it as he turned around.

In less than a minute, Harry and Astoria’s swords were clanging together and making the air sing as their swords flew through it to attack again and again.

Harry sensed rather than saw his friends finishing up their grappling matches and standing to watch him and Astoria.

Harry did a quick block that turned into a rebound into an attack to the stomach, which Astoria just barely caught on the hilt, the tip of Harry’s blade hitting her gloved hand. They shared a flash of a smile before backing away slightly so that Astoria could try to hit him in the leg, but Harry was prepared and caught it on his blade, swinging them up together and pushing them together, blades between them.

Astoria’s eyes narrowed as she pushed the blades towards Harry so that she could jump back and make some space. The teenage boy did nothing but wait for her next move, his mind thinking up possible moves in milliseconds.

Suddenly, with no warning, Harry flashed forward, hitting Astoria’s sword dead on and forcing them near her face as his left hand reached down to his thigh. All Astoria could do was gasp and blink in surprise as she felt a dagger tip against her neck, right on her pulse point.

She finally lowered her sword in defeat, and Harry moved away from her. For once, Astoria actually lowered her sword before dropping it to the ground. Usually, she’d fake a loss and go for another round, but her dropping the sword meant defeat.

Raising an eyebrow, Harry didn’t lower his guard as he replaced the knife in its hidden sheathe. It was a lucky thing he did as she suddenly grasped her own dagger and lunged forward, barely giving Harry enough time to raise his sword again to block the dagger.

“Argh!” he exclaimed, backing up and glowering at the girl. At least she wasn’t smug this time, he thought, remembering the first time she had done this and the smirk on her face. His catching her off guard with the dagger this round had thrown her off.

Glaring a little, Harry swung his sword, pulling out the dagger again as he did. Astoria tried to back up to her sword, but he wasn’t having any of it as he forced her away from the weapon. To both of them, it was obvious this was a last ditch effort on Astoria’s part, but they were willing to fight it out.

Swinging his sword, Harry caught the dagger right at the hilt with the flat of his blade, and he quickly put as much pressure as he could onto it, forcing it from her hand. Moving almost silently, Harry swung around behind Astoria, both dagger and sword across her neck.

“Do you yield?” he panted, and she nodded in defeat. This time he knew she was done.

Letting her go, both stood there panting, Astoria’s weapons on the floor and Harry’s held loosely in his hands.

“And they wonder why we don’t want to fight with them,” Justin muttered, and Harry’s head flashed up to see the others surrounding him and Astoria at a distance, a few looking awed even after all this time watching the pair practice together.

“They know why,” Susan replied in a normal voice, “but they’re just hopeful someone new will work with them whenever they ask.”

Astoria and Harry shared smiles and a shrug before they moved to put their swords back onto their piles of equipment, daggers back into thigh sheathes.

“How do you two move so fast?” Natalie asked, looking more at Astoria than Harry, so he let her answer.

“Just a lot of practice and knowledge of the moves,” she replied with a grin. “Of course, the fact that we’re smaller than most our age helps.”

Harry internally groaned at the reminder that, despite four years of good food and a good home life, his ten years with the Dursleys would forever leave a scar on his body. He had muscle and was a reasonable five-ten, but it still annoyed him to no end that Blaise, Draco, and even Theo were taller than he, and don’t even mention Ron around him.

“So if Graham and I practice, we might get to be that fast?” she asked, excited.

“You’re both already faster than most of us,” Maya told her brother’s friend, “so if you both work on making it so that using your weapons comes almost as a second-nature, you’ll probably be quite fast with them.”

Natalie turned to Graham with a huge grin, and Harry saw that the young Slytherin couldn’t help but grin with her.

Chuckling quietly, Harry turned to get a bottle of water before returning to his practice with Astoria, who was just as thirsty and dehydrated as he.

…

Harry sat on his stomach, the wind blowing his fur around a little as he hung his tongue from his mouth and watched Daphne chase Blaise and Theo around. It was quite amusing to watch a furious lion roar and race after a scared fox and bear. She was catching up to them.

“ _This is amusing, isn’t it_?” Maya hissed from the grass beside him, and Harry barked a laugh, not even turning to face her. “ _Who do you think she’ll catch first_?”

“ _Theo,_ ” Harry stated, and moments later, the brown fox was on the ground beneath the lion. The bear ran a bit further before turning to watch them from a safe distance, obviously curious about what the lion was going to do to the fox.

Raising his head, Harry saw three shapes against the sun above him. He knew one was an owl, another a falcon, and the third a golden eagle. They seemed to be figuring out how to glide a bit better — unless they were playing some weird game of follow-the-leader…

“ _Draco_ ,” Maya hissed, and Harry turned to see the blond fox staring up at the three shadows as well. Harry grinned in amusement, having a very good idea of why he was looking up in that direction. “ _I’m not the only one who’s noticed, then?_ ” she asked.

“ _I’ve seen it since the beginning of the summer,_ ” Harry replied, “ _but I noticed it more and more since getting back. It seems we’ve figured out the mystery girl he was so tight-lipped about at Christmas.”_

_“He wanted to ask her_?” Maya hissed in surprise, turning to face Harry as she lifted herself from the grass to see him better.

“ _Claimed she’d never be into him,_ ” he said, barking quietly in amusement. “ _Of course, he wouldn’t say_ who _she was, but I think it’s obvious now.”_

_“Only to those paying attention,_ ” Maya retorted, and Harry had to silently agree with her.

Three cats were running around in the thick grass, and Harry gathered they were playing hide-and-seek, though he couldn’t be certain as he only understood basic animal language that they all understood. Otherwise, only those of the same animal understood one another, except for him, Maya, and Ginny with their Parseltongue, of course.

“ _I wonder when he’s going to admit it,_ ” Harry commented, barking as a tiger tackled a cheetah out in the distance. “ _Go Susan! Get the edge on Justin!_ ”

“ _Hopefully before school starts, but that only leaves him with six days,_ ” Maya replied to the first comment, ignoring the second altogether as it was a common occurrence.

“ _Knowing Draco, he’ll do it on the last day,_ ” Harry said, his grin getting an edge to it that would have been a smirk if he had been human.

Ankh came out of nowhere and tackled Maya, tangling the pair together, though both were careful not to knot themselves again. As Ankh raced away, Maya tore after him. All Harry heard was a hissed, “ _I’ll get you for that Ankh!_ ” before they disappeared.

He chuckled and stood up to go break up the fight between Daphne, Blaise, and Theo before Daphne hurt one of them, or worse, someone uninvolved.

…

Remus’ wolf Patronus suddenly flew into the training room, landing in the center of the room. It only took a few moments for everyone to stop what they were doing to turn and face it, but the Patronus stayed silent for a full moment before opening its mouth to speak in Remus’ voice.

“Now that I’ve managed to stop your training and get your attention…” Remus broke off as everyone chuckled or exchanged amused looks. “And now that that’s out of your systems,” — a few grinned again — “you all need to come upstairs with all your stuff as training is done for at least the next few hours.”

“What!” A few groaned while most just looked disgruntled. There had been a bet going on how many times Astoria and Harry would win at grappling when against one another within an hour.

“If you aren’t up here in five minutes, I’m sending Sirius down there. Five minutes starting… NOW!”

Everyone had been moving at the word Sirius, rushing to pack up supplies and grab water bottles before tearing up the stairs, a bag over one shoulder. Overall, it took them all two minutes to get upstairs facing the adults in the living room, most draining their bottles as they ran.

“What did you threaten them with this time?” Samuel asked Remus in amusement.

“Sirius,” was all he said, and all the adults laughed except Sirius, who glared at all of the teens before growling at Remus.

“Well, I don’t think any of you will mind this interruption,” Samuel said, “because finally, with only four days left, your Hogwarts letters have arrived.”

The fifth years perked up a little as they heard this. They all knew Prefects were going to be chosen, so they were finally going to find out which of them would be chosen as only Hermione was a given out of the group, or at least in Harry’s mind.

“Maya, Natalie, Graham, here are yours,” Natalie’s mother said, holding out the three letters.

Luna and Neville collected theirs from their father and grandmother respectively, but Neville withheld from opening his until Remus, Samuel, and Daniel gave out the rest of the letters to the nervous fifth years along with Astoria.

Harry decided to wait as he watched Susan, Hannah, and Justin open theirs first. Justin and Susan’s eyes widened in surprise as they pulled out a gold badge with a large P on a Hufflepuff badger each. Hannah congratulated both her friends with a true smile, obviously proud of them. Harry knew Amelia Bones would be talking with Susan that evening when she stopped by for dinner like she did every night.

Hermione screamed in happiness when she opened her letter to see a badge similar to Susan and Justin’s but with a Gryffindor lion instead of the badger, but it seemed Neville was shocked beyond words when he found an identical badge in his own letter. His grandmother’s eyes had widened and she was frozen in place before she moved to Neville and hugged him tightly to her, tears in her eyes from joy.

“I’m so proud of you, Neville,” she whispered, but Harry could hear it from his place not far behind his friend. “You’re most definitely your parents’ son.” A grin made its way onto Harry’s face, knowing how much hearing that from his grandmother would mean to Neville.

“Who’s willing to bet it’s Padma and Terry for Ravenclaw?” Theo called to the group, and no one went against him as it was the most plausible guess.

Theo and Blaise opened their letters to no badge, but both were smirking as they turned to Draco and Harry, both of whom hadn’t opened their envelopes yet. Of course, Daphne’s gasp of surprise startled them as they saw her holding up a gold badge with the emerald green Slytherin snake on it. Astoria went and hugged her sister with a grin, though Harry had a feeling Daphne was going to get teased like crazy that evening.

“Upset you weren’t made Prefect?” he asked Tracey softly, walking over to her as the others congratulated Daphne, forgetting about Harry and Draco for another moment.

“No,” she replied with a small smile. “She’s the better choice because she’ll actually order the others around with authority; I’d be quieter and not as good of a Prefect. Now come on and open your letter. We all know it’s going to be either you or Draco, so let’s find out which.”

Sighing, Harry walked over to Draco, and both boys nodded. At the same time, they opened their letters and turned them over. Much to everyone’s shock, a badge fell into both boys’ hand. Blinking, Harry turned his over and saw it was identical to Daphne’s, meaning he was the Prefect. Looking up, Harry saw that Draco’s was similar, but his had a C on it instead of a P.

Harry grinned. Draco had been made Quidditch Captain! He had forgotten about that opening and how they had all been hoping for Draco to be captain. It seemed Snape had taken their silent hint.

“Well done both of you!” Remus said, placing a hand on each boy’s shoulder as everyone looked on in a bit of shock, Sirius in the most shock as he stared at the badge in Harry’s hand.

“Thanks, Moony,” Harry said, grinning up at his father’s friend. “I think Snape chose well for Captain, Draco. Don’t you guys?” Harry looked up at the other Quidditch players in the room, all of whom nodded as they overcame their shock to grin at the pair.

“Sirius, this isn’t the end of the world,” Tracey said aloud to Sirius, and everyone turned to see he was still frozen over Harry’s badge. “Out of the entire group, Harry makes the most sense for Prefect while Draco makes more sense for Captain.”

“Padfoot?” Harry asked in a wavering voice, worried about what his godfather thought about him being Prefect. He knew that Sirius had given both Remus and his father a hard time about the Prefect and Head Boy badges respectively.

“I think they couldn’t have chosen a better Prefect,” Sirius finally said, beginning to grin. “Come here.” Harry moved into Sirius’ hug immediately, smiling into his godfather’s chest. “I mean, who could be better than the boy uniting the Houses for the first time in a thousand years?” Sirius asked as he hugged Harry.

Harry could only grin as he pulled out of the hug and looked down at the badge that he had only been hoping for in the back of his subconscious mind as Sirius moved to hug Draco.

…

Tracey looked over at Harry, whose senses were concentrating on the sound of the shower turning off in Sirius’ bathroom. He held up his hand with all five fingers raised, looking down at his watch to count down the time. Sirius always took the exact same amount of time every single shower he took to leave the bathroom. Finally, Harry began counting down the seconds.

_5… 4… 3… 2… 1…_

The moment Harry closed the final finger, the two almost-twins heard Sirius scream.

“What are you doing in here, Snivellus?! Why are you in my room?!” Sirius yelled.

Harry and Tracey snickered. They had charmed one of the dummies from down in the basement to look like Professor Snape and left him in Sirius’ room as he showered.

Suddenly, they heard bangs from in the room, and that was when they realized the dummy and Sirius were dueling. It would be amusing when the dummy hit Sirius with a spell as they had assigned it to use only pranking spells and _Expelliarmus._

“Gah! Why am I _pink_?!” Sirius yelled. “HARRY!!!”

Harry and Tracey took that as their cue to run into his room, taking their prearranged places on his bed and at his desk. Tracey had her Journal open while Harry was polishing his Firebolt for the school year, something he had needed to do anyway.

“Harry!” Sirius exclaimed angrily as he barged into the room. “I know you did this!”

The pair looked up, pretending to be startled. It only took a few moments to take in the sight of a pink, silver, and emerald green Sirius wearing only trousers before they burst into laughter, pencil and polishing supplies falling from their hands.

“What happened, Padfoot?” Harry gasped out.

“You know perfectly well what happened to me, Harry,” Sirius growled.

“We don’t,” Tracey denied, gasping, “we really don’t.”

“I got out of the shower to find a dummy charmed to look like _Snivellus_ in my room, waiting for me,” Sirius snarled. “When I tried to attack it, it returned fire and hit me with three different charms! I _know_ you both had something to do with this.”

“We’ve been in here!” Harry exclaimed, gesturing to his room, Tracey’s open Journal, and his half-polished broom. “Why are you blaming _us_ , anyway?”

“Probably because we’re the _only_ resident pranksters, Harry,” Tracey sighed sadly.

Harry was barely able to hold a straight face as Sirius looked stricken for accusing the two teens who were playing innocent perfectly. It seemed that Occlumency training and practice with lying to people had paid off as Sirius stammered an apology and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Neither spoke until they heard him yelling down two floors at Remus. Once they heard that, they both burst out laughing again.

“That — was perfect,” Harry gasped out. Tracey could only nod in agreement as she shook with mirth, her laughter falling silent as she was having trouble breathing.

“I can’t believe we pulled that off,” she finally said once she had gotten her breath back, and Harry smiled proudly.

“We’re _so_ doing that again,” he stated, and they shared mischievous looks as minds whirled with ideas for pranks they could blame on others.

…

The final night of summer, everyone staying in the house was gathered in the living room with hot chocolate. Sirius was growling in annoyance as everyone snickered at his multicolored form. Harry and Tracey had spent the final four days of break pranking Sirius over and over while finding out ways to keep the blame from them. They had finally informed him of their involvement once Remus had made everyone promise no pranks until they were all at school, and that meant Sirius as well.

“Since we’re confessing things right now, I believe your mother and I have to inform you girls of something,” Daniel said as he and Samantha turned to face Daphne and Astoria.

Harry sat up straight as he realized this was something that had been kept from all the teens.

“Your mother and I are moving to another safe house no one knows about,” Daniel continued, and all of the teens were shocked. “There’s no Fidelius Charm on it because there can’t be.”

“Why can’t you just live here?” Astoria demanded, and Harry understood that she was worried for her parents with Voldemort out there.

“Astoria, I’m the Secret Keeper here,” Samantha said softly, moving to sit next to her daughter. “The Secret Keeper cannot live where the secret is for more than a month or two without the charm failing.”

“Why?” Daphne asked, her voice sounding a bit choked.

“The charm is based on trust,” Remus said. “If the person lives under the charm, where’s the trust in it? With your mother outside of the charm, it proves we trust her with the secret of this home. She’ll be here again for Christmas and then Summer, but the rest of the year, your parents will be living at another property Sirius purchased just for them to live on.”

“Daphne, Astoria, we’ve put the best protections we can on it, even involving the goblins for an expensive price,” Daniel continued, moving to sit by Daphne on the hastily abandoned couch that now held the Greengrasses.

Daphne took in a deep breath, closing her eyes as she tried to regain her calm. Harry knew she understood why her parents were doing this, even if she was worried for their safety now. Still, it was hard on all of the teens to realize two people they had come to respect could possibly die just to protect Marauder Manor.

Blaise stood and pulled Daphne up from the couch, hugging her tightly as he moved her away from the group a little to whisper into her ear. Daniel and Samantha watched on as their eldest daughter was comforted by one of her oldest friends.

Much to the surprise of almost everyone in the room besides Maya and Harry, who exchanged raised eyebrows, Draco stood and walked slowly over to Astoria, taking Daphne’s abandoned spot to put an arm around her shoulders as the thirteen-year-old fought to keep her composure.

Harry knew that no matter how mature any of the teens in the room was, including him, they would all be reacting like this to find out a loved one was in potential danger that they could actually predict.

Draco moved his face to Astoria’s ear and whispered something to her that seemed to surprise her as she turned to look at him, her eyes wide and the sadness gone from them. Nodding, she laid her head on his shoulder, and Draco continued to whisper in her ear. Harry wasn’t sure, but he thought there was a pleased edge to the gray in Draco’s eyes as they met his dead on.

One side of his mouth lifting, Harry nodded at Draco before turning to look at Tracey, who was also smiling. Around the room, the expressions were a mixture of shocked and pleased, not a single person upset, though Blaise and Theo were beginning to look mischievous. Even Daphne wasn’t upset, a tiny smile gracing her lips at the scene before her.

All Harry did was enjoy the moment as he thought about having to go back to school the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose Neville as Prefect rather than Ron because I honestly didn’t see a reason not to. In canon Ron was chosen over Harry both because Dumbledore felt Harry had too much on his mind and also to, I believe, give Ron a confidence boost. My Ron is different from JKR’s (obviously), so those reasons don’t exactly exist anymore.


	40. Chapter Forty

Harry looked around the platform, smiling slightly at the craziness of it all. It reminded him of that day exactly four years ago when he had watched it all from the safety of a compartment on the scarlet train in front of him. Now, though, he was well known and those with black Journals were calling out to him, waving, and a few even came over to ask if he had a good summer.

Of course, being reminded of his summer caused a bit of rage to enter Harry’s body, but he hid it and smiled at everyone, saying it had been a pleasant summer and asking after their own.  
  
The anger from being kidnapped had been overcome with training, laughter, and fun since rejoining his friends at Marauder Manor, but now, returning to where Dumbledore actually had power over him, it came back in a rush. It didn’t help that Harry could look around and see members of the Order of the Phoenix all around, obviously keeping an eye on him with their quick glances in his direction every twenty seconds.  
  
“Keep calm, Harry,” Tracey muttered, putting a hand on his arm as he clenched his fists and teeth, growling almost silently deep in his throat.  
  
“How dare he!” he snarled quietly to her as he turned away from those watching him. “I am not his pawn to control!”  
  
“I know, Harry!” Tracey exclaimed quietly. “Please, just keep calm until we’re on the train and can silence the compartment; then you can rage at Dumbledore.”  
  
“Fine,” he snapped, going over to their families to say goodbye, shaking slightly with rage.  
  
The adults understood why he was barely speaking as they had caught sight of the adults watching him and his reaction. It didn’t take much to put together what was going on. All they could do was keep calm for Harry as they told him to have a good term and that they’d see him at Christmas.  
  
“Use the mirror tonight to tell us about the new Defense teacher,” Sirius added in an undertone to Harry, and he nodded before turning to go onto the train and find a compartment for those friends that weren’t Prefects.  
  
Soon enough the others began to join them, Padma and Terry proudly wearing the Ravenclaw Prefect badges on their shirts. Pretty soon the only ones missing from the colored Journal group were the Weasleys.  
  
Moments before the train left, the door opened and all three stood there, smiling. Of course, Harry saw the strain on Ginny’s face, and he realized it had been a hard month since he had left for them, which was only to be expected with how the Order had reacted to it all. Monitoring charms, checking their mail, rarely letting them out of the sight of an Order member… it had all been quite harsh on the trio. Only Ron had escaped it at all, and even then he had been watched a bit more closely than before.  
  
“How are you?” Harry asked softly as Ginny sat next to him, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.  
  
“It’ll be easier now that we’re away from the Order,” she replied just as softly, resting her head on his shoulder.  
  
“Harry?” Hermione said cautiously just as the train began to move, and he looked up to see all the other Prefects standing and looking at him.  
  
“I’m sorry, Gin, but I’ll be back once this is over,” he sighed, and she nodded, sitting up so that Harry could stand. “We’ll be back in a bit.”  
  
Internally, Harry was groaning, trying not to think about how boring the meeting was going to be.

…

Finally, after an hour-long meeting and another half hour of walking along the train with Daphne, Harry was able to collapse back into his seat between Ginny and Tracey.  
  
“That bad?” Ginny asked around a laugh.  
  
“I won’t mind being Prefect, but Merlin…” Harry groaned. “The other Prefects saw me and looked at me as if I was Head Boy already!”  
  
“It can’t have been that bad,” Hannah said cautiously, but the other Prefects were shaking their heads.  
  
“It was that bad, Hannah,” Susan said.  
  
“If Harry hadn’t been looking at the actual Head Boy pointedly, I’m not sure if they wouldn’t have treated Harry as one,” Terry added.  
  
“Are most of them in the Journal group?” Draco asked, and all eight of them nodded. “That makes sense, then, as they’re all used to looking at Harry as the leader when he’s around, not someone else.”  
  
“Great, just great,” Harry groaned. “Except for the Slytherins — who, may I add, were looking at me oddly as well — everyone else there thinks I should be Head Boy _now_ , not in two years when I’ll be a seventh year.”  
  
“Well, unless Dumbledore is forced to decide otherwise, you’re the most logical choice of our year, Harry,” Hermione reminded him, but Harry just shook his head, eyes closed tightly. He just wanted to get away from this topic.  
  
“So, Silver, Emerald, Gin, were the Order members _really_ watching me like I saw?” he asked, and everyone stiffened slightly as the tension rose again.  
  
“Unfortunately,” Ginny said darkly as the twins nodded seriously. “Dumbledore asked them just this morning to report back to him what sort of ‘ _condition_ ’ you were in when they saw you. It’s as if he was expecting you to have been captured by Death Eaters!”  
  
“He’s making sure his pawn is still in one piece,” Harry muttered darkly. “Unfortunately, this is a three-way chess match, and I’m anything _but_ a pawn in it.”  
  
“You’re the king of the gray pieces, Harry,” Neville stated, and the others nodded.  
  
“Thanks Neville,” Harry said appreciatively, nodding at the Gryffindor. “Still, that means I’m up against two kings…”  
  
“You need to ally yourself with Dumbledore and the Order,” Graham stated, and most of the teens blinked at him, but the Slytherins all nodded in agreement, even Harry reluctantly.  
  
“I know I do, Graham, but he’s acted more like a dark lord than Voldemort so far,” Harry sighed. “Not this year, not when the wounds are still so fresh. Maybe I’ll talk to him next year about it.”  
  
“Just make sure you do it before Voldemort attacks,” was all Graham said.

…

“ _Were you and Graham serious about the alliance with the Order_?” Ginny asked as she and Harry took a walk down the train so that he could say he had made some rounds during the trip.  
  
“ _Unfortunately_ ,” he hissed back almost silently, trying not to move his lips. “No hexing your friends on the train, Rebecca!” he added to a third year Gryffindor who had just turned her friend into a boy with toad-like skin. “ _Finite_. Please, you can practice charms like _Expelliarmus_ , but don’t jinx your friends.”  
  
“Sorry, Harry,” they all said, looking ashamed, so he gathered they had all been doing it.  
  
“I don’t mind practicing, but nothing you don’t know how to counter immediately, especially if you don’t know the effects,” he told them. “If you get an older student willing to work with you, it’s fine, but you need to be careful; we don’t want anyone in the Hospital Wing before term even starts!” He laughed a bit, and they all joined in as the tension eased. “Have a good ride.”  
  
“You’re good at this,” Ginny commented in English as they walked on. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “The Prefect thing, I mean. The younger students of all the Houses already respect you and are willing to obey you, yet you know how to tell them off while keeping them calm.”  
  
Harry just shrugged as they walked on. He just saw it as a way to get along with all the students, which was a large part of his goal of uniting the Houses before he was even a seventh year.  
  
“ _Still, why do you need to ally with the Order_?” Ginny continued in Parseltongue.  
  
“ _Because they’re the adults against Voldemort, and we teens can’t fight unless we’ve got at least one adult on our side outside of our group. Dumbledore is our best bet,_ ” Harry replied, and Ginny fell silent for the rest of the round.

…

“Hey,” Harry said as he opened a compartment, leaning against the doorway with a friendly smile on his face. “I’m Harry.” A couple of the students in the compartment looked at his forehead, and he laughed lightly.  
  
“Yes, I am Harry Potter,” he stated, and the rest realized who he was and their eyes widened. “I’m also the Slytherin fifth year Prefect. I just thought I’d introduce myself and let you all know that you can come to me if you need help, no matter what House you’re Sorted into.”  
  
“Even if we’re Gryffindors?” one of the young first year boys asked, speaking up when none of the others would despite their faces making it clear they had questions.  
  
“Yes, even if you’re Gryffindors.” Harry tilted his head and looked the brown-haired boy over as the hazel eyes bore into his green ones. “What’s your name?”  
  
“Euan Abercrombie,” the boy said, standing up a bit straighter, as if waiting for a comment.  
  
“I’m very glad to have met you, Euan,” was all Harry said before turning to the entire group. “When you get Sorted, you’ll all be sitting by the second years. Talk with them and find out about anything you want to know. Then follow the fifth year Prefect to your Common Room once the feast is over. I’ll probably see you soon.”  
  
Still smiling, Harry turned and left the compartment, closing the door behind him. All he could hope for was that he had made the sort of impression he desired.

…

“What are _those_?” Harry demanded, staring at the skeletal horses that were obviously pulling the school carriages.  
  
“Thestrals,” Theo said a bit sadly, and Harry’s eyes widened as his muscles froze. Ginny and Tracey walked up to either side of him and got him moving while his mind spun.  
  
He had read about Thestrals, and he knew what his being able to see them meant: He had seen death.  
  
A flash of green light and Cedric’s body falling zoomed through his mind for a moment before it was gone and Harry was shaking his head. He couldn’t think about that now, not when he was going up to the school and had to set an example for the first years for many reasons.  
  
“You okay?” Ginny asked, and Harry nodded for the entire carriage to see.  
  
“I’ll be fine,” he replied aloud, closing his eyes as if that closed the matter, which it did.

…

Sitting at the Slytherin table, Harry was able to watch Professor McGonagall lead the first years into the Great Hall to be sorted. Euan Abercrombie met his gaze and waved slightly, making Harry grin at the eleven-year-old. Then Harry turned his attention to the Sorting Hat as it began to sing.  
  
“ _The time of darkness has returned,  
And with it the danger  
Of having to fight the dark,  
For this will be something major.  
Our world is changing,  
Yet there will still be a need  
To fight for lives,  
As otherwise, people will bleed.  
Students, you must be careful  
Not to take things too lightly;  
Just because you are young  
Does not mean you will get off freely.  
You all must work together,  
Including those still unsure,  
Because if you don’t,  
No one will be secure.  
Chosen Heir, I speak to you,  
Because you have their interests at heart;  
Take the innocent and the ignorant,  
Make them think like they are smart.  
Just because you are all young,  
Does not mean you cannot be strong;  
So Chosen Heir, take them all,  
And give them what they need to live long.  
Now to the Houses,  
I must turn,  
For all of you  
Will be Sorted and learn.  
Strong Gryffindor took the brave,  
While dear Ravenclaw took the ones who liked books the best,  
And sly Slytherin adopted the ambitious and observant,  
Leaving the lovely Hufflepuff the rest.  
All of you must be Sorted into one,  
But do not allow it to separate you,  
For doing so will mean harm,  
And you shall have to say adieu.  
Let me Sort you,  
But keep my words in mind,  
For they will be important  
When you are all in a bind._ ”  
  
Harry’s brow creased as he thought about what the Hat had said directly to him. Train the students? Was that what the Hat was telling him to do? Why would he do that?  
  
Shaking it off, Harry decided to see what the situation at Hogwarts presented to him before truly thinking about that again.  
  
Other than that, the Hat’s message was all pretty basic about the war beginning and time growing darker despite the Ministry’s denial of Voldemort’s return. Tom Riddle would make a mistake and it would be known that he was back, and when that happened, everyone would spin and the Wizarding World would be a very hard place to live.  
  
Harry blinked as he saw Euan Sorted into Gryffindor, where Natalie greeted him with a grin. Euan looked over at Harry, and Harry raised his empty goblet in a sort of salute to the young boy, who grinned in return.  
  
No other name really hit him except the new Hufflepuff Rose Zeller, though that was mainly because she was the final one to be Sorted.  
  
Dumbledore then allowed them all to eat, and Harry filled his plate with Shepherd’s pie, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and sprouts before looking up at the Head Table to see who the new Defense teacher was. It was obvious immediately as she stood out quite a bit. She looked, Harry thought, like somebody's maiden aunt: squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair in which she had placed a horrible pink Alice band that matched the fluffy pink cardigan she wore over her robes.  
  
“Any idea who she is?” Harry asked, gesturing to the new professor with his fork before cutting off a bite of chicken to put into his mouth.  
  
“Oh Merlin, we’re in trouble,” Draco said softly, his eyes widening as he stared at the new professor, worrying Harry in an instant. “Her name is Delores Umbridge.”  
  
“Fudge’s Undersecretary?” Theo gaped, looking at the woman who Harry thought looked like a toad out of the corner of his eyes.  
  
“The very same,” Draco muttered darkly. “Father had her over at the manor quite often over the past few years. I’d recognize that toad of a woman anywhere.” Most of the group snorted, but it was more to relieve the tension that had grown than anything else.  
  
“If she works for Fudge, that means she’s here to spy on Dumbledore,” Daphne muttered.  
  
“Who wants to bet we don’t learn a single thing from her in class?” Harry replied just as quietly, but no one took him up on the offer.  
  
They ate in almost complete silence, dark thoughts whirling through Harry’s mind at the idea of having one of Fudge’s stooges at Hogwarts.  
  
“Now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices," Professor Dumbledore said. "First-years ought to know that the Forbidden Forest is out-of-bounds to students - and a few of our older students ought to know by now.  
  
“Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me, for what he tells me is the four-hundred-and-sixty second time, to remind you all that magic is not permitted in corridors between classes, nor are a number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened to Mr. Filch's office door.  
  
“We have had two changes in staffing this year. We are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons; we are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."  
  
Dumbledore continued, "Tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will take place on the -"  
  
He broke off, looking enquiringly at Professor Umbridge. As she was not much taller standing than sitting, there was a moment when nobody understood why Dumbledore had stopped talking, but then Professor Umbridge cleared her throat, "Hem, hem," and it became clear that she had got to her feet and was intending to make a speech.  
  
Dumbledore only looked taken aback for a moment, then he sat down smartly and looked alertly at Professor Umbridge as though he desired nothing better than to listen to her talk. Other members of staff were not as adept at hiding their surprise. Professor Sprout's eyebrows had disappeared into her flyaway hair and Professor McGonagall's mouth was as thin as Harry had ever seen it. No new teacher had ever interrupted Dumbledore before. Many of the students were smirking; this woman obviously did not know how things were done at Hogwarts.  
  
"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge simpered, "for those kind words of welcome."  
  
Her voice was high-pitched, breathy and little-girlish and, again, Harry felt a powerful rush of dislike that he could not explain to himself; all he knew was that he loathed everything about her, from her stupid voice to her fluffy pink cardigan. She gave another little throat-clearing cough ("hem, hem") and continued.  
  
As she spoke, Harry and his five friends shared looks of disbelief. It was quite obvious to them that she was saying, between her words, that the Ministry was actually going to interfere with Hogwarts this year! Was Fudge out of his _mind_?  
  
Finally, though, she was done speaking and Dumbledore sent them off to bed. Harry knew they’d all be in the boys’ dormitory, talking about this, once the first years were in the correct place.  
  
“First year Slytherins, follow us, please!” Harry called, and he saw Graham leading the first years over to he and his friends, who had decided to help he and Daphne out.  
  
“Tom Vaisey,” Graham muttered into Harry’s ear, gesturing towards a brown-haired, brown-eyed boy near the front of the nine first years. Harry only nodded as Graham left the eleven-year-olds in his and Daphne’s care.  
  
“I’m Harry Potter, and this is Daphne Greengrass,” Harry said, gesturing between them. “Welcome to Slytherin.”  
  
“Follow us and we’ll answer questions as we tell you ways to remember your way to the Common Room,” Daphne added as she and Harry led the first years from the Hall, their friends surrounding the group so that no one else could separate them. “Those students around you are our friends, and they’re here to make sure you don’t get lost. They’ll also answer questions if you have them.”  
  
“Is it true what Graham Pritchard told us?” Tom asked, and Harry turned his head to look him over once before nodding. “So you’re really uniting the Houses?”  
  
“Anything Graham told you is true,” Harry replied. “When we get to the Great Hall in the morning, you’ll see what we mean.”  
  
Tom nodded, satisfied for now. The others around him were also a bit more relieved at Harry’s words, though Harry expected it was more because he wasn’t trying to force anything onto them more than anything. He had seen that reaction too many times not to recognize it.  
  
“See those snakes on the ceiling?” Daphne asked, gesturing to a snake as they stopped at a corner. All the first years nodded, looking up at it. “At every corner in the dungeons there’s a snake. If you take the corner of the side of the corridor that you see the snake on, you’ll find your way to the Common Room.”  
  
They continued on their way, and Harry turned to see that the Slytherins were looking up at every corner to be sure they spotted the snake up there. Grinning, Harry continued to walk alongside Daphne to the Common Room.  
  
“This is where the entrance is,” Harry commented as they reached the stretch of stone wall that housed the Slytherins, pointing up at the snake in the middle of the corridor. “The password is ‘Hissing’ for now.” A couple of first years snickered at the password as the entrance opened. “Yes, it’s an amusing password, but that also means the other Houses won’t try to guess it as easily.”  
  
The first years nodded in understanding as Harry and Daphne led them inside, their friends all heading to the dormitory ahead of them as they answered more questions from the first years.

…

“This is going to be a bad year,” Theo stated, and the others nodded as they sat on Harry and Theo’s beds, which were side-by-side as they had been for the past four years.  
  
“Umbridge is going to _ruin_ the school,” Daphne agreed.  
  
“What’s worse is that she has the power of the Minister behind her,” Draco reminded them, which they didn’t need as they all groaned.  
  
“We have to do all we can to not aggravate her,” Harry sighed, pulling his glasses off to place them onto his lap, rubbing his eyes with his left hand as he did. “If she tries to ignite our anger, just use your Occlumency training to keep in control until we’re back here and can rage all we want.”  
  
“Make sure you follow your own advice, Harry,” Tracey commented with a raised eyebrow.  
  
“Oh be quiet, you!” Harry groaned, throwing a pillow at her almost blindly while trying to shove his glasses back on so he could see.  
  
Tracey laughed and threw it back at him, almost hitting him in the face. This started a pillow fight as Harry’s next throw hit Theo in the head.  
  
Finally, though, they calmed down and headed off to bed.  
  
The last thought in Harry’s mind was that this was only the beginning of a long school year.


	41. Chapter Forty-One

“Dolores Umbridge, you said?” Samuel asked Harry over the mirror early the next morning. So early, in fact, that Harry had been forced to silence his bed so that he could yell Sirius’ name into the mirror to get him to give it to Samuel.

“As I’ve said three times already, yes, Draco says it’s Umbridge, and you told me yourself that she looks like a toad,” Harry sighed.  
  
“I’m sorry, but I had to check,” Samuel groaned. “We had heard in the Auror department that she got reassigned, but no one knew it was to Hogwarts!” Samuel sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Harry, the _entire_ school has to be wary of her. She’s not the person you wish to cross at any time.”  
  
“We gathered that from her speech and position within the Ministry,” Harry admitted with a small shrug.  
  
“Good, good,” Samuel said distractedly, obviously thinking. “Listen, Harry, I need you and Tracey to make me a Journal or two connected only to the colored Journal section of your Journals.”  
  
“Why us?” Harry asked, surprised. “Couldn’t you -?”  
  
“I’d have to borrow a colored Journal to connect them,” Samuel reminded him. “It’s easier if you just make it.”  
  
“Ah, I remember now,” Harry said, nodding a bit as the knowledge came to his tired mind again. “How will I send it without anyone knowing?”  
  
“Use the box that we’ve been using the past few years to send those _lovely_ gifts back and forth,” Samuel basically ordered.  
  
“Got it,” Harry said, nodding. “I’ll talk to you later. It’s time to get ready for training so that I can wake these lazy gits up. Plus, Daphne and I need to be back in time to make sure the first years don’t get lost.”  
  
Samuel nodded. “Have a good weekend, Harry.”  
  
“You as well, Samuel. Pass on my regards to the others.”  
  
Harry put the mirror away and quickly got up and dressed, slipping weapons into a dragonhide bag from his Storage Vault to throw over his shoulder. Once ready, Harry quickly silenced and then soaked all of his friends with a blast of water from his wand to wake them up, smiling innocently before gesturing for them to be quiet. They all glared at him but got ready for training, moving quickly as they knew Harry would fight them himself if they didn’t.  
  
When they got to the Common Room, the girls were just arriving, so they all slipped up to the Room of Requirement quietly, making sure to ask for their normal training room and that no one but them could get into it, especially while they were in there.  
  
It was time to train.

…

A sighed pulled itself from Harry’s throat as he settled down on his usual stool next to Draco in the first class of the year: Potions.  
  
The weekend had been full of training, catching up with others, and making that Journal Samuel had requested. Said Journal had been completed and sent the night before, and all of the people who had wanted to talk with him had found him in The Den for talking as he worked on it.  
  
Now, though, it was time to sit through Professor Snape’s usual tirade on the first day as well as his bias towards Slytherin. Fortunately, the insults had been toned down quite a bit, so he wouldn’t have to put up with _those_ at all.  
  
Just then, Snape barged into the room, stalking up to the front before he looked at all of his students. When his eyes landed on Draco, Harry saw an odd edge to his face and eyes that made Harry believe Lucius or Dumbledore had been saying things that had worried the Potions Master until he saw Draco up close to know that he was perfectly fine.  
  
“Before we begin today's lesson," Snape said, "I think it appropriate to remind you that next June you will be sitting an important examination, during which you will prove how much you have learned about the composition and use of magical potions. Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an 'Acceptable' in your OWL, or suffer my… displeasure.  
  
“After this year, of course, many of you will cease studying with me," Snape went on. "I take only the very best into my NEWT Potions class, which means that some of us will certainly be saying goodbye.  
  
“But we have another year to go before that happy moment of farewell," Snape said softly, "so, whether or not you are intending to attempt NEWT, I advise all of you to concentrate your efforts upon maintaining the high pass level I have come to expect from my OWL students.  
  
“Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: the Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Be warned: if you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing. The ingredients and method -" Snape flicked his wand "- are on the blackboard -" (they appeared there) "- you will find everything you need –" he flicked his wand again "- in the store cupboard –" (the door of the said cupboard sprang open) "- you have an hour and a half… start."  
  
Harry and Draco collected their ingredients and got to work side-by-side, adding and stirring at exactly the correct moment. As they worked, Snape went around the room, checking to be sure everyone was making it correctly. He stopped at their table and watched them for a few minutes, but Harry just ignored the professor, concentrating.  
  
“Mr. Malfoy…” he heard Snape say softly once both he and Draco were at a part in the recipe that allowed them to relax for a few minutes. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Draco stiffen at the name, but he didn’t react. Instead, Harry looked up at their professor.  
  
“There’s no Malfoy in this room,” he stated, looking around. “I don’t see Lucius Malfoy in here, sir.” Harry tilted his head a little. “Did Professor Dumbledore not tell all of the professors about the two different letters sent to him at the beginning of the summer?”  
  
“Draco?” Snape asked, sounding surprised. His use of Draco’s first name startled Harry until he realized the pair must have known one another for years, so it made some sense that Snape would use it when unable to use Malfoy.  
  
“My name is Draco Black now, sir,” Draco replied, lifting his head to look at their Head of House proudly. Snape’s eyes widened, but there was no other show of his surprise before he put on a blank face.  
  
“Very well,” he said. “I was uninformed of the change; thank you for informing me. Your mother and father asked me to inquire after your summer, and I believe I understand why now. From what I can see, you were treated well wherever you stayed. Would you like to pass anything else onto Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy?”  
  
“Tell my mother thank you and that it worked out for the best,” Draco said softly.  
  
Turning a little, Harry saw most of the room was watching the three of them, but only Harry could hear what either was saying, so he wasn’t that worried about it. Still, Harry gestured for them to concentrate on the potions in front of them given that many were about ready for the next step.  
  
Once he was facing forward again, Harry lifted the small dropper next to his cauldron and added two drops of syrup of Hellebore. Nudging Draco, he handed the blond the dropper so that he wouldn’t miss the seven minute mark and mess up his potion. Nodding in thanks, Draco added it silently.  
  
“Very well,” Snape finally said in response to Draco’s request before turning to check on the rest of the class.  
  
“You okay?” Harry asked quietly, leaning forward to find his knife.  
  
“Yeah,” Draco replied just as quietly. “We’ll probably be doing this a few more times before all of the professors have heard and call me Black rather than Malfoy.”  
  
“Then we’ll keep doing it,” Harry whispered firmly.  
  
“Thanks,” Draco murmured almost silently, and Harry just grinned at his friend before going back to his potion.

…

“Good luck,” Harry said to Tracey, Draco, and Daphne as they arrived at the Defense classroom just as the Gryffindors were leaving it, all of them making faces. Blaise and Theo were in Arithmancy, so they would be catching up shortly.  
  
“We’re not going to be using spells _at all_ in there!” Hermione muttered harshly, and Harry’s eyes widened, but he continued to enter the classroom and find a seat in the middle of the room, his friends slowly surrounding him.  
  
Up on the board, Harry read:  
  
_Defense Against the Dark Arts A Return to Basic Principles  
  
Course Aims:  
  
1\. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.  
  
2\. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.  
  
3\. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use._  
  
"Well, good afternoon!" she said, when finally the whole class had sat down, those from Arithmancy finally arriving. No one said a word.  
  
"Tut, tut," Professor Umbridge said. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge'. One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"  
  
"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," they chanted back at her, Harry’s friends obviously fighting the urge to roll their eyes at her.  
  
"There, now," Professor Umbridge said sweetly. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."  
  
The Slytherins were perfectly silent as they returned wands to wand holsters or pockets before pulling out writing supplies. Harry had decided to use a quill in this class, at least until he had a good measure on the professor, though if she made them write too much he’d switch.  
  
“Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" Professor Umbridge stated, facing the class with her hands clasped neatly in front of her.  
  
“The constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see in your OWL year.  
  
“You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following, please."  
  
Letting out an annoyed breath, Harry realized she wanted them to copy what was on the board. He set to work and wrote it silently, listening to the quills around him scratching the lines onto the parchment. Once he was done, he read them over and spotted what Hermione had said beforehand: There was no mention of using defensive spells on these aims.  
  
When everyone had copied down Professor Umbridge's three course aims she asked, "Has everybody got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"  
  
“Yes, Professor Umbridge,” the class responded blandly, moving to pull out the book from their bags. No Slytherin was willing to give anything to her, especially Harry and his friends.  
  
"Good," Professor Umbridge said. "I should like you to turn to page five and read 'Chapter One, Basics for Beginners'. There will be no need to talk."  
  
Harry flipped the book open to the first chapter and pulled out his Journal and pencil, pretending to be taking notes as he read the chapter, though he was doing neither.  
  
_Harry: Please tell me this isn’t what your class was like, Hermione!  
  
Hermione: Sorry Harry, but ours was probably worse with how I brought up the lack of spellwork and everyone commented on it.  
  
Theo: Great…_  
  
It was hard to hold in a grin as Harry saw Hermione’s notes on the first chapter appear in his Journal when it was inactive. All it took was a simple charm to change it to his own handwriting.  
  
_Harry: Thanks Hermione!  
  
Hermione: Just don’t get into trouble with her and it’s no problem._  
  
“Mr. Potter, Mr. Nott, Ms. Greengrass, is there a reason you are all writing?” Professor Umbridge asked suddenly, and they all looked up from their suddenly deactivated Journals to see their professor was standing and watching them.  
  
It had been almost twenty-five minutes, and Harry had actually already read the chapter before coming to the class. He wasn’t sure if the others had or not, but Harry had felt it was better to be prepared for this class than to take any chances.  
  
“I was just finishing up my notes on the chapter, Professor,” Harry said for the three, though he hadn’t realized Daphne was using the Journal as well.  
  
Professor Umbridge walked over to Harry and looked at his Journal, which he knew had the exact same writing on it, but looked like some other form of a place to take notes. She frowned a little as she read them over but could say nothing about it as taking notes meant Harry had actually been reading, at least in her mind.  
  
“What have you been writing with, Mr. Potter?” she instead asked, looking at the pencil in his hand.  
  
“This is a Muggle pencil, Professor,” he replied, holding it up for her to see. “I don’t need any ink and I can erase mistakes I make with this, so I use it for notes in class in case I copy something wrong.”  
  
Harry could see both the curiosity and disgust on Umbridge’s face as she looked at the pencil, but she said nothing more as she walked over to Theo and Daphne to see they had been doing the same thing.  
  
The class returned to reading, and Harry went back to conversing with Hermione.  
  
_Harry: Sorry about that. Umbridge decided to find out why Theo, Daphne, and I were writing.  
  
Hermione: I gathered from how all three of you suddenly disappeared at almost the exact same moment.  
  
Harry: She couldn’t comment on anything, not even the pencil. Still, be careful with the Journals in here.  
  
Theo: Should we really be using them right now, then?  
  
Hermione: Probably not, so why don’t you get off and actually read the chapter?  
  
Harry: *Groans* I already read it during my free period before this class! It’s terribly boring and could put a person to sleep. Still, we should probably pay attention…_  
  
Harry closed his Journal, but left it on the desk with his pencil next to it. All he could do now was stare at the last page of the chapter because he had supposedly finished it. There was nothing to do and he was _bored._  
  
“Is there something wrong, Mr. Potter?” Professor Umbridge asked, and Harry looked up to see her staring right at him.  
  
“I finished the chapter already, Professor,” he replied, knowing better than to lie.  
  
Professor Umbridge’s eyes narrowed as she looked at him, and Harry felt the class looking between the pair. He didn’t know why, but Harry felt as if Umbridge was planning something.  
  
“Please continue reading, then, Mr. Potter,” she said sweetly, “but if you plan to take notes, please use a quill as this is a _wizarding_ school, not a _Muggle_ one.”  
  
“Professor, there’s no rule or law against using Muggle objects in Hogwarts as long as we don’t turn in any homework with them,” Harry said calmly. “I never turn in a piece of homework not written in ink and on a roll of parchment, so my taking notes with a pencil isn’t against the rules.”  
  
“Are you arguing with me, Mr. Potter?” Professor Umbridge asked in her sickeningly sweet voice, and Harry knew without the looks his friends were giving him that he had to tread lightly.  
  
“Of course not, Professor, but I had heard this was your first year working at Hogwarts, so I had hoped to be helpful by reminding you of the rules before someone actually managed to embarrass you over them,” Harry replied slowly, thinking his words carefully. “It would be terrible to hear that our new Defense Professor who is here to be sure we finally get a good education in the subject according to Ministry standards was embarrassed by a Muggle-born student that was acting just to make you look bad in front of classmates.”  
  
Everyone turned to look at Professor Umbridge as she stared Harry down, probably trying to decide if he was being cheeky or not. He just kept his face blank and waited. Finally, though, she nodded while frowning.  
  
“Thank you for the help, Mr. Potter, but detention at five this evening in my office for talking back,” she said.  
  
Harry kept his mask on as he nodded once and turned back to his textbook, flipping to chapter two. Internally, he was trying not to scream at her, but Harry knew it would only get him into more trouble and was keeping his Occlumency meditation running through his mind to try and get it off the Defense Professor.

…

“That was an unfair reason to give you detention,” Tracey said, frowning , after the class was finally done and they were heading to dinner. “You were obviously arguing with her, but the excuse you made up was well done and actually something she should have welcomed.”  
  
“Fudge has been telling her about me and how I’m an attention-seeking liar, remember?” Harry muttered darkly, his hands in fists.  
  
“You’re going to keep your Journal active so that we know what you’re doing, got it?” she replied, and Harry nodded in agreement.  
  
“If she forces you to do something we don’t think you should be doing, we’ll have Daphne warm up your Journal for you,” Theo said, smirking as Daphne frowned at him and the rest chuckled a bit, easing the tension.  
  
“How was class?” Ginny asked as she caught up to the group of six Slytherins who were still a bit annoyed at Umbridge. “That bad, huh?” Ginny guessed from their faces.  
  
“I’ve got detention in just over an hour,” Harry growled, and Ginny’s eyes widened.  
  
“What did you do this time?” she sighed.  
  
“He got told off for writing with a pencil, so he informed Umbridge that it wasn’t against the rules to write notes in pencils,” Blaise said. “She asked if he was arguing with her, and he told her that he only wanted to help make sure she wouldn’t be embarrassed in another class because a student _wants_ to embarrass her. In the end, she gave him attention for talking back even though it was obvious she was pleased by the response.”  
  
“I’m _telling_ you, she’s after me this year!” Harry complained, looking up at the ceiling in his annoyance. “When she looked at me after I told her I was done with the chapter, it was as if she was planning something. It wouldn’t surprise me if having me in detention and keeping an eye on me is part of the reason she’s here at Hogwarts this year.”  
  
“I’ll give you the fact that watching you probably one of the reasons she’s here, but I don’t think putting you in detention is an order from Fudge,” Daphne said in amusement as they got to the Entrance Hall.  
  
“ _Fine_ ,” Harry sighed, “but on top of ruining Hogwarts and watching Dumbledore, she’s out to get me. Can we all at least agree on that?”  
  
The others nodded, and Harry felt a sad stab of success as they went into the Great Hall to eat. It was a victory, yes, but not really one he wanted to win.

…

Harry looked around Professor Umbridge’s office, trying not to gag at it. Every surface had been draped in lacy covers and cloths. There were several vases full of dried flowers, each one residing on its own doily, and on one of the walls was a collection of ornamental plates, each decorated with a large technicolor kitten wearing a different bow around its neck.  
  
"Good evening, Mr. Potter,” Professor Umbridge said from behind her desk where her robes made her blend in.  
  
"Evening, Professor Umbridge," Harry said stiffly.  
  
"Well, sit down," she said, pointing towards a small table draped in lace beside which she had drawn up a straight-backed chair. A piece of blank parchment lay on the table, apparently waiting for him.  
  
Harry sat down immediately, sliding his bag onto the ground next to him with the strap between his knees just to be safe.  
  
“Now, you are going to be doing some lines for me, Mr. Potter. No, not with your quill," she added, as Harry bent down to open his bag. "You're going to be using a rather special one of mine. Here you are."  
  
She handed him a long, thin black quill with an unusually sharp point. In Harry’s mind, he recognized the quill as the one Draco had used while signing that contract at Gringotts at the beginning of the summer, and it worried him as he remembered Draco’s name being written in his own blood while it was carved into the back of his hand for a moment.  
  
"I want you to write, I must respect my betters," she told him softly.  
  
"How many times?" Harry asked, with a creditable imitation of politeness.  
  
"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in," said Umbridge sweetly. "Off you go."  
  
Harry knew at that moment, for a fact, that he was holding a Blood Quill. After the meeting, Harry had asked Sirius and Draco about the quill as he had never even heard of one. The interesting detail that caught his attention was the fact that it was illegal to use one on a minor without a parent or guardian there to watch the minor sign a contract with it. There was no other use for the quills.  
  
She moved over to her desk, sat down and bent over a stack of parchment that looked like essays for marking, but Harry knew they couldn’t be. Harry raised the sharp black quill and wrote with it, knowing his memory and accusation would be more real if he had actually been forced to use the bloody thing.  
  
_I must respect my betters._  
  
The words had appeared on the parchment in what appeared to be shining red ink. At the same time, the words appeared on the back of Harry's right hand, cut into his skin as though traced there by a scalpel - yet even as he stared at the shining cut, the skin healed over again, leaving the place where it had been slightly redder than before but quite smooth.  
  
“Blood quill,” he muttered almost silently under his breath for his friends to understand before he looked up at Umbridge, the quill held tightly in his hand.  
  
“Yes?” she asked, smiling sweetly at him. Just then he felt his Journal burn up, not that he needed it for this.  
  
“You cannot legally make me do this,” he stated. As he spoke, Harry put the parchment and quill in his bag, stood up, and slung the bag over his shoulder. “I’m a minor, and there is no contract to sign, let alone my guardian.”  
  
With that, Harry left the office, walking steadily to the dungeons to find Professor Snape while speaking aloud to his friends.  
  
“Get Susan and ask her to meet me in Snape’s office, please. If she’s there we’ll be able to contact Amelia faster.”  
  
Just after he reached the office and stood outside to wait, his five friends and Susan raced over to him, breathing heavily, obviously having run the entire way there. Without waiting for them to speak, he knocked on the door and opened it when Snape said, “Enter!”  
  
“What is going on here?” Snape asked, standing as he caught sight of the odd group in front of him.  
  
“You need to Floo call Susan’s aunt,” Harry stated, reaching into his bag for the evidence. “I was just in detention with Professor Umbridge, and this is what I found.” He held out the parchment and Blood Quill.  
  
“Did you write with this?” Snape demanded sharply, and Harry nodded, showing the single line he had written. “Very well; Miss Bones, please come here and call your aunt with my Floo. Make it seem like you’ve got a problem you wish for her to know about so that she can come without suspicion.”  
  
Susan nodded before hurrying to the fireplace. Within a minute, Amelia Bones was standing there, a worried look on her face that grew worse as she took in the sight in front of her.  
  
“Amelia, I had detention with Professor Umbridge just now and well…” Harry just handed her the quill and parchment.  
  
“She made you use this?” Amelia demanded, and Harry nodded once, raising his hand to show the slight redness that was still there. “Would you be willing to give me the memory?”  
  
Harry pulled out his wand and pulled the memory from his mind, placing it into the vial Professor Snape provided.  
  
“Unfortunately, for now, Madam Umbridge is under the protection of Minister Fudge,” Amelia sighed. “When that protection is no longer there, you will be sure that I’ll use this against her. Until then, I believe your reaction should stop her from using the Quill again in fear of other students recognizing it.”  
  
Everyone nodded, even Snape.  
  
“Inform me if anyone else ends up with the cuts on their hands so that I can take a copy of their memories, but otherwise, all I can say is to keep your heads down as best you can. Susan, I’ll write to you in a day or two. Keep up with your studies, and I’ll see you at Christmas.” Amelia turned to Harry. “Thank you for getting this to me immediately. I’ll be sure to inform those I can without tipping my hand.”  
  
Harry nodded, and Amelia was gone. _  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is how Harry Potter deals with Professor Dolores Umbridge — or should I say how Professor Dolores Umbridge deals with Slytherin Harry Potter. *Smirks in amusement* I will admit to having that distinction pointed out to me by one of my reviewers (I can’t remember who, let alone which site), but it’s quite true, now that I’m thinking about it. *Whistles innocently*


	42. Chapter Forty-Two

“I still can’t believe anyone willing to use a Blood Quill is at Hogwarts!” Daphne complained the next morning as they jogged around the Room of Requirement at six in the morning to cool down after an hour-long training session.

“We get it Daphne,” Harry sighed. “If she uses it again, she’s just going to be digging her grave more and more. Still, you should be more worried about me seeing as I just walked out of detention on her.”  
  
Theo waved off Harry’s words easily. “She’s just going to pretend the detention didn’t happen because she’s not sure what you did with her Quill. As long as she has no idea who you told, you’re quite safe from her, and you’d be even safer if she did know.”  
  
“Yeah, but Amelia wouldn’t be,” Harry muttered, finishing his jog and heading to the showers the Room had provided.

…

“A _Blood Quill_?!” Sirius yelled a bit later that morning as Amelia stopped by for a pre-arranged meeting between them and informed the entire group of what had occurred. “She used a _Blood Quill_ on my _godson_?”  
  
“Harry wrote a single line with it before knowing it would be all the evidence needed to convict her and left,” Amelia told the group, calming them down as they realized Harry had known what it was right away. “I’m only informing you as it has to do with your godson and you have a right to know, but you can’t do anything about it right now, Sirius. Until Umbridge is no longer under Fudge’s protection, we can do nothing to either of them!”  
  
Finally, Sirius calmed down enough to nod in both understanding and defeat. After a few moments of silence, Amelia went on.  
  
“I believe I came here to discuss something else with you, Sirius?”  
  
“Right,” he said, looking up, a bit more excited again. “I asked for this meeting because I want to privately fund the Auror Corps for you without Fudge being able to interfere, which means we’ll have to figure out how to make it happen.”  
  
Amelia blinked in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting Sirius to be willing to help like that, even if he did have that vast fortune from his family. It was a welcome surprise, however, as Fudge had been cutting down on the money given to her for years, meaning the Aurors were a small group with outdated supplies.  
  
“We’d have to set up a second base for the Aurors alone to know about,” she mused, allowing ideas to flow into her mind quickly. “In the past couple of years we’ve gotten a lot of applicants I just couldn’t hire because I didn’t have the money for their training.”  
  
“Can you find out if they’d still be willing to work with us?” Samuel asked, and Amelia looked at one of her Aurors for a moment before nodding.  
  
“I believe many of them were truly upset about being rejected, though they understood when I explained the reasoning behind it,” Amelia admitted, and Samuel nodded.  
  
“Find them, and I believe we now have a use for my home again,” Samuel said, grinning a little. “There is plenty of room on the grounds to train trainees on spellwork and other ways of fighting while inside would work for anything else.”  
  
“Would you be willing to be in charge of the new recruits?” Amelia asked, realizing that the offer was quite a good one and it was true that the Davis home would be a good place to train them out of the way.  
  
“Yes, and after we speak with Auror Tonks, if she decides to leave the Order, she can assist me,” Samuel stated, and Amelia acknowledged the idea as a good one.  
  
“Sirius, you’d be willing to pay for books, armor, and their pay, correct?” she asked, and he nodded while grinning happily.  
  
“Easily,” he replied. “Get me the size for armor, and you’ll have it within a fortnight, and the books can be here in less than a week once I know what to purchase. As for their pay, all I’d need would be their vault numbers and permission from all involved to move funds to it.”  
  
“Very well,” Amelia said with a nod. “I guess the Auror Corps just got a new source of money.”

…

Fleur smiled at Bill as he walked up to her to take her out to dinner. He had no idea of what the conversation would revolve around this evening.  
  
Ever since she had denied the offer to join the Order, Bill had brought it up once or twice, but Fleur had been asked to wait before accepting the offer, so she had told him she would reconsider her earlier decision, but not to push her. Finally, though, Harry had written to her via the Journals, asking if she’d join once the school year had started.  
  
As they ate, Fleur brought up the topic herself.  
  
“Your Order, it is run by Dumbledore, no?” she asked, and Bill looked up, startled.  
  
“Yes, it is,” he told her quickly, and Fleur knew that as much as Bill loved her, he also respected Dumbledore enough to take advantage of her bringing up the topic. He would never force her to join, but really wished that she would accept.  
  
“Please tell ‘im zat I would be very pleased to see ‘im again, zis time wizout ze Tournament over my ‘ead,” she requested, and Bill smiled.  
  
“Of course, Fleur,” he said.  
  
Her job had begun.

…

Lord Voldemort looked out at the black group of masked followers, not even slightly pleased by them.  
  
“I asked you to find a way to get me _one thing_ , and what do you do? You _fail_!” he yelled at them, making them flinch. Voldemort took a deep breath and replaced his emotionless mask again. “I am not pleased. Lucius, why have your contacts not figured out a way to get the Prophecy from the Department of Mysteries?”  
  
“I am sorry, my lord, but none of them are Unspeakables, and they have not yet managed to gather the information from one,” one of the Death Eaters replied, head bowed towards the stone floor.  
  
“Your family has already displeased me with your son’s betrayal, Lucius,” Voldemort hissed. “Do not disappoint me again.”  
  
“Of course, my lord.” Lucius bowed.  
  
“Avery, you will work on a way to break your fellow Death Eaters out of Azkaban,” Voldemort ordered, and the man bowed in acknowledgement. “The rest of you shall be sure that my return is still disbelieved. Now leave me.”  
  
The Death Eaters left, and Voldemort glared at the wall as he calmed his annoyance at them. It would do him no good to kill all of his Death Eaters, especially when he was still recruiting more of them.

…

Minister Cornelius Fudge finished the Floo conversation he had been having with his Undersecretary Delores Umbridge. It seemed the situation at Hogwarts was even worse than they had thought. Students wanted to learn how to _use_ spells, and they were all going against her! Potter even had the nerve to talk back and then walk out of the detention given to him.  
  
No matter; he had a plan to be sure Hogwarts was back under Ministry control. The new Educational Decree would work wonders at the school, and it would give Delores more power to stop Dumbledore’s meddling and lies.  
  
A knock on the door garnered his attention, and when it opened to reveal Lucius Malfoy, Fudge smiled at the man. Lucius had made some wonderful donations as well as some extra pocket money for Fudge. In the end, all the man asked for was a few favors here and there like keeping the disownment of his son quiet and Quidditch World Cup tickets.  
  
“Lucius, my friend, what can I do for you?” he asked, gesturing to the seat in front of his desk as he waved his wand and brought out two glasses of wine.  
  
“Thank you,” Lucius said, nodding as he accepted the glass. “I was mostly curious of what you’re doing at Hogwarts with Madam Umbridge. Dumbledore has been interfering there for too long; the fine institution has been going downhill for years.”  
  
“Yes, yes,” Fudge agreed. “Educational Decree Number Twenty-Three should be to your liking.” Fudge passed a sheet of parchment to his friend, and gray eyes moved quickly back and forth as the man read over it, a slow smile gracing his lips.  
  
“This is very well written and thought out, Minister,” Lucius complimented, sliding it back. “That should stop Dumbledore’s meddling in its tracks while giving the Ministry a chance to finally return Hogwarts to its past prestige. May I know when you shall be implementing this?”  
  
“Next week,” Fudge replied. “It will take some time to get the Wizengamot to agree to it, unfortunately, and I must have at least a three-fourths agreement before I’m permitted to give Delores the position.”  
  
“Maybe I can be of some service, Minister,” Lucius offered, and Fudge felt relief. Whenever Lucius got involved with something like this, it always sped things up immensely.  
  
“If you are willing, Lucius, your support would be welcome,” Fudge said, showing none of his relief in his tone, though he had relaxed the moment he heard the offer.  
  
“Of course,” Lucius said with a smile. “I’ll have that Decree signed by Saturday. Until next time, Minister.”  
  
“Until next time, Lucius,” Fudge replied, shaking the man’s hand.

…

Harry paced around in The Den on Thursday after dinner, his ears full of the angry mutterings of the other students. It seemed everyone in the school was upset by Umbridge’s being there.  
  
After sending a Silencing Charm at the entrance to The Den, Harry did a check for Monitoring Charms and got rid of them all. Finally, he set off a series of sparks to silence the mutters, knowing he had things to both ask and say.  
  
“First and foremost, has anyone seen Umbridge in here yet?” he called. The response was a negative from everyone.  
  
Harry closed his eyes and thought for a moment before opening them again and pointing his wand at the wall full of doors that led to the practice rooms. Waving it from one side to the other, he muttered an incantation under his breath, watching as it flashed for a moment before looking normal again.  
  
“If she comes in here and asks about that wall, be sure to tell her that it’s always been just a blank wall!” he told the group with a smirk. Most of the students, including the sixth and seventh years, looked at him in awe as they realized what he was saying he had just done.  
  
“She doesn’t want us practicing spells, so we can’t let her realize we’ve got a way to practice right here under her nose,” he continued, gesturing to the newly-charmed wall of doors. “When she’s in this room, don’t enter there, and I’ll set up a charm that will inform anyone in those rooms when she’s in the area so that they know not to exit the rooms until she’s gone.”  
  
There was more muttering, some amazed and some amused. Overall, though, there was a feeling of annoyance at the new professor.  
  
“Back to what you were doing,” Harry said, waving at them before he went and sat down next to Tracey, head in his hands.  
  
“Smart,” Blaise commented, and Harry just nodded into his hands, glasses resting in his lap where they had fallen to when he slipped them from his nose.  
  
“This year is going to be a nightmare,” Harry muttered, and there was nothing the others could say to that.

…

Laura Madley, the second year leader of Hufflepuff, dragged Rose Zeller up to Harry Friday afternoon as he sat doing homework in The Den, waiting for Arithmancy to finish so that he could go to Transfiguration and show his work on the Vanishing Charm.  
  
“Rose here has been too afraid to come talk to you about the Journals, which she has been able to see since the first evening here,” Laura told Harry, and his eyebrows rose. “She’s certainly my choice as leader, but…” Laura trailed off, shrugging.  
  
“Are you afraid of something, Rose?” Harry asked, and the girl shook her head. “Then what’s wrong?”  
  
“I’m Muggle-born,” she said softly. “Who would listen to me when there are Purebloods that actually know about the Wizarding World?”  
  
“I would,” Harry said. “If you’re a good leader, Rose, then anyone will follow you, especially if you’re willing to listen to what others tell you. When you don’t know something, just ask someone who does and make them realize you’re willing to learn from your friends.”  
  
“But Tom Vaisey, Euan Abercrombie, and Sally Fawcett already know all of this stuff,” Rose replied, listing the three other leaders in her year.  
  
“And I bet if you started talking about the Muggle world they’d be completely lost,” Harry reminded her with a grin. “That’s the thing with them — you have to exchange information so that you all learn, okay?”  
  
Rose nodded, smiling a little as she held her head up a bit higher. It seemed his words had done their job.  
  
“Go find your friends,” Laura told Rose, and Rose took off after waving goodbye to them. “Thanks, Harry; I’ve been trying to get through to her, but she wouldn’t listen.”  
  
“Sometimes it takes hearing it all from someone more than just a year older than you,” Harry replied with a grin before turning back to his homework.

…

Harry walked into the Common Room chuckling the Sunday before the second week of classes, and his friends all looked at him oddly as he shook his head.  
  
“Either he’s gone more crazy than usual or we’re missing something,” Theo stage-whispered to Blaise, who nodded in agreement, both still looking at Harry.  
  
“You’re missing something _huge_ ,” Harry replied, still amused. “I’m not that crazy this time.”  
  
“What did we miss this time?” Tracey sighed, moving over to make room for Harry, shifting her bag to by her feet.  
  
“Umbridge tried to close down The Den,” Harry began, but he had to stop to wait for their cries of denial to quiet down before continuing. “Anyway, she tried, but the magic of the room and the castle stopped all of her attempts stone cold. Not a single thing she tried worked. In fact, I even saw her thrown from the entrance of The Den when she tried to enter after lighting a fire in there.”  
  
“Seriously?” Theo asked gleefully, leaning forward.  
  
“Seriously,” Harry agreed, nodding. “She can’t even _enter_ The Den now! The castle is against her and won’t let her into our safe haven!”  
  
The students around the group heard Harry and cheered happily. Even the sixth and seventh years looked both pleased and relieved, Harry noted. It seemed the rooms he and the girls had made the year before had done their job; not even the eldest in the school wanted to see them go.  
  
It added even more amazing feelings to the ones already in Harry from being able to watch the school throw Umbridge across the corridor.

…

“This is _disgusting_!” Draco sneered, throwing the _Daily Prophet_ onto the table, looking anywhere but at the front page.  
  
Pretty soon, everyone had read the article and Daphne burned it.  
  
“I can’t _believe_ she’s High Inquisitor now!” Theo exclaimed, but the others all shook their heads sadly. All six of them knew it was coming sometime; they just hadn’t expected it to be so soon.  
  
“She and Fudge must feel it’s worse than they expected here,” Tracey said softly, and Harry nodded in agreement, sighing deeply.  
  
“Hogwarts just seems to be getting more and more under their control,” he whispered to her as Theo continued his tirade. “Once they have a firm enough grip, it’s going to tighten, and the students are the ones it’s going to affect the most. I feel bad for the youngest in the school as they’re never going to get to see it peaceful. From here on out, our year is just going to get darker and darker.”  
  
“Unfortunately,” Tracey agreed quietly.  
  
“Percy wrote to me last night,” Ginny snarled as she threw herself down into the seat beside Harry. “He was talking about the article, telling me to check out the _Prophet_ this morning.” Ginny growled to show how she felt about that. “The prat wants me to cut all ties with you all; the twins as well.”  
  
“He’s listening to his ambition rather than his heart right now,” Daphne said softly, turning to look at the trio instead of at Theo.  
  
“We know, but it’s just disgusting to realize how much more he cares about his job than his own family,” Ginny sighed, slumping down for a moment before reaching to grab some food. “Claims Ron is the only smart one of the four of us, only being courteous to you when he has to and having no other ties.”  
  
“That’s how everyone is supposed to see him,” Harry reminded her softly, glancing at Ron as he did so. The teen was sitting between Dean and Seamus, eating quietly and glaring at any copy of the _Daily Prophet_ his eyes came across.  
  
“Doesn’t mean any of us have to like it,” Ginny said, finishing the conversation.  
  
Finally, in the silence, Harry turned to look at the Head Table. The toad was sitting there, smiling smugly as she held a copy of the newspaper in her hand, looking down at the reactions of the students throughout the Hall.

…

“Parvati just finished telling me about Divination,” Padma said, sitting down at the group of couches that Harry was sitting among. “Umbridge was there inspecting it.” Everyone turned to face her immediately, wanting to hear the story.  
  
“She embarrassed Trelawney as if there was no tomorrow. Kept asking her questions to find out if she was an actual seer or not. Trelawney got so desperate that she told Dean he’d die an early death and that Umbridge had a dark future awaiting her.”  
  
“The twins told me that Umbridge was in Charms class earlier as well,” Ginny piped up. “Flitwick treated her like a guest and Alicia spoke well of him, so he should be in the clear.”  
  
“Trelawney is in trouble, though,” Susan said a bit sadly. “I don’t like her, but it’s hard not to feel sorry for her, having to deal with Umbridge like this.”  
  
“I don’t think anyone can help but feel bad for her,” Harry sighed. “Umbridge is going to destroy Hogwarts before we get rid of her — that much is obvious.”  
  
No one could say a word against it as it was the obvious, but harsh, truth.

…

“They’re in trouble,” Samuel sighed, putting down the paper next to the mirror he had been using to talk to Harry and Tracey not even half an hour before.  
  
“She’s gaining too much power,” Remus agreed, his face dark at the thought of Umbridge around any of those students.  
  
“Tracey said that she’s not even teaching them anything,” Daniella sighed. “If they don’t find a way to learn new spells and practice their training, it’s going to be a very long summer trying to get them to improve.”  
  
“They’ll figure out a way to train if it’s the last thing they do,” Samuel said, placing a hand on his wife’s arm. “Already they’ve told us about the hour in the Room of Requirement every morning to make sure they keep strong.”  
  
“True, that will help _them_ , but what about the other students?” Daniella asked, her face full of worry. “The others will come out into the real world after seventh year or even just for the summer and find themselves in a war they aren’t prepared to fight!”  
  
“I don’t think you have to worry about that, Daniella,” Sirius said, finally speaking up with a grin.  
  
“And why is that?” Remus asked, exasperated as he knew all about Sirius’ thoughts when he spoke like that.  
  
“Harry and the others will get sick of the lack of Defense classes and start training their classmates,” Sirius stated. “Watch them make an army out of Hogwarts just because they want to train the students to protect themselves. With the way Harry is with those who know him, he’ll get them wanting to fight alongside him to protect Hogwarts, and he’ll take advantage of it to start planning for an attack on the castle.”  
  
“That… actually made sense,” Remus said, eyes a bit wide as he realized both the possibilities and truth behind Sirius’ words.  
  
“Of course it did!” Sirius exclaimed, annoyed. “I have good ideas.”  
  
“Once in a blue moon,” Remus muttered under his breath, but he and the Davises were exchanging looks.  
  
“How about we let the teens figure this one out?” Samuel suggested with a grin. “It will mean more if one of them comes up with the idea and starts it.”  
  
“That’s the only way to let it happen,” Remus agreed.

…

“You’ve done well, Lucius,” Lord Voldemort hissed as one of his Death Eaters explained what he had done. “The less Potter and his friends can learn this year, the easier it will be in the future.”  
  
“Yes, my lord,” Lucius agreed. “And the more power Umbridge has, the sooner Dumbledore will be gone from Hogwarts.”  
  
“True, very true,” Voldemort mused. “The more chaos in Hogwarts, the worse the future will look for the Wizarding World. Again, you’ve done well, Lucius. The shame caused by your son has been… forgiven. Now, where have you gotten with my Prophecy?”  
  
“It shall be easier to know what we’re up against once Avery retrieves Rookwood from Azkaban as he was once an Unspeakable and will be able to tell us of the protections on the Prophecy. Until then, I will Imperius different people and see if they can’t collect it for you, my lord.”  
  
“Very well,” Voldemort said. “You have done well, for now. I shall call you again soon.”  
  
Lucius Malfoy bowed and left Voldemort’s presence. Voldemort began thinking of ways to attack Hogwarts once Dumbledore was out of the way, though only if it was a certain success.

 


	43. Chapter Forty-Three

Harry sat in one of the study rooms of The Den along with the others possessing colored Journals except the twins. It was a Thursday afternoon a month into the school year, and the fifth years were piled with homework for their OWL year and had begged the others to go to one of the quieter rooms for the evening. After any charms on the room besides the ones Harry, Tracey, and Ginny had originally put on it had been taken off, they had all set to work.

Now, over two hours later, Harry had spent over an hour reading the same chapter over and over, trying to figure out how to write ten inches on just twenty-five pages of trash for Umbridge.

“I’m sick of this!” he yelled, slamming the book shut quite suddenly, making the rest jump and look at him.

“Sick of what, doing homework?” Theo asked, looking relieved by the interruption. “Because if you are, thank Merlin I’m not the only one!”

“No, I’m sick and tired of only learning theory in the toad’s class,” Harry snarled, picking up his book to show them. “We’re not going to learn _anything_ in her class.” He threw the book across the room where it hit the wall with a satisfying crash before sliding down to the ground, the pages bent from where the cover lay open atop them.

“Whoa, Harry, calm down,” Justin said, backing away as the book had flown only mere inches from where he was seated.

“Sorry, Justin,” he replied, slightly ashamed, but then his anger came back just as fiercely. “What’s going to happen to everyone when they go home for the summer or leave Hogwarts for good? Voldemort is back, and they’re not going to know how to fight the Death Eaters!”

“What are we supposed to do about it?” Hannah asked. “Fudge is being an idiot and won’t let us learn anything.”

“You’ve got a good idea there, Harry,” Ginny suddenly said, and Harry turned to see Ginny and Tracey grinning at him. “Please, _do it_! It’ll make this year less terrible.”

“What are you going on about?” Natalie demanded.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Hermione asked, also smiling. “He wants to teach the students himself.”

Everyone gaped at the four for a moment before they began to speculate about it. It didn’t really take very long for the group to join in on the grinning as they nodded.

“It’s going to take some work to make it happen, though,” Terry commented.

“Of course,” Maya said, looking a bit offended at the idea that they hadn’t already thought of that. “If we teach everyone in the Journal group at once, it would be too obvious what’s going on. We’ll have to figure out schedules, levels, and groups for how to teach them all.”

“I have a feeling you’re all going to be helping me teach,” Harry interrupted, and they all turned to him, a bit shocked. “What, you all thought I’d be able to teach five different years, have Quidditch practice, do my homework, get around Umbridge, plan and pull off pranks, _and_ get ready for OWLs all at once?”

Harry grinned in amusement as it was obvious his friends _had_ believed that until they realized how busy he actually was. Now that they thought about it, their teaching was pretty obvious.

“How are we going to split it up, though?” Padma asked, pencil in hand and Journal open to write down more notes.

“Graham and Natalie should teach together and with the youngest as the older students wouldn’t even listen to them,” Terry said, but Harry was shaking his head at his friends.

“We need to see who’s interested in this and test them to figure out where they are before we even think about who is teaching what group,” he reminded the pair, and they looked a bit embarrassed, but Padma still wrote the idea down.

“Well, the leaders are the first ones we should tell,” Ginny said, holding up her Journal. “They can say how interested they are in the idea and suggest it to their groups to find out how well the idea is received. Once we know that, we can start planning how to test them in the Room of Requirement.”

Everyone nodded, and Harry activated his Journal to the leader section, calling them all in before allowing the others to speak as it was obvious they wanted to. All of the leaders were excited, including the new first years that had just gotten Journals a few days before.

Harry just grinned a bit as he saw how much those who knew of the idea were looking forward to it.

 …

Harry clapped his hands loudly with a _Sonorous_ Charm on them, drawing the attention of all the sixth and seventh years who had Journals as they covered their ears.

“Now that I’ve got your attention, we can finally begin,” Harry said, drawing his wand. “This is your test. The better you do, the better training you will get. Begin!”

The moment he called out begin, his friends all shot Stunners at the group, whispering them from their placing among the shadows.

Most of the group had drawn wands just after Harry had and got shields up, but a Ravenclaw and a Hufflepuff, both sixth years, were Stunned. From his vantage point on the slightly elevated stage, Harry could tell that no one knew if they could revive the Stunned, so they were left alone. That would be something to comment on.

Then, Harry joined the fold, shooting off a Disarming Spell, catching the wand that flew at him. Placing the wand in his pocket, Harry left the stage and entered the shadows.

What the older students didn’t know or realize was that there were shadows around the entire room because they had been asked for; they were there to allow a true test of their abilities to find Harry and his friends. The shadows weren’t even shadows but a fog.

A Stunner suddenly hit another student in the group, and Harry looked to see Astoria grinning proudly. Rolling his eyes, Harry threw three Stunners, moving to the right as he did so to make it look like more than one person. Only one of his Stunners was blocked.

Hermione suddenly tied one of the seventh year Gryffindors — Harry realized after a moment that it was Angelina — in ropes, forcing Angelina to the ground as she tripped.

Finally, Katie and Alicia stood back to back and both used a wind spell, dissipating the dark fog that had been the shadows. At the sight of younger students, the sixth and seventh years relaxed, and that was their final mistake.

Slashing downwards harshly, Draco hit the entire group with a Silencing Charm. Once that was done, it was just too easy for Harry and his friends to Stun, tie up, or disarm the group.

“There’s a lot to work on!” Harry called once everyone had been revived, released, and given back his or her wand, his arms crossed. “From the very first moment I had comments for you all. The one thing I’m going to do now is congratulate Alicia and Katie for realizing the shadows were actually a fog and getting rid of it. Unfortunately, none of you were working as a team!

“When the first two were Stunned, you should have revived them immediately. There were no rules, so why shouldn’t you keep your fighters going? Another thing is that you _never underestimate the enemy_! Once you all saw that we were younger than you, you all relaxed and thought you’d handle us easily, but not a single one of us was hit.” Harry tapped his arm with a finger as he looked at them all.

“What I gathered from that little test was that none of you are prepared to work as a team, and in uncertain situations, you hesitate instead of thinking and acting. _This_ is how a duel will look in the future, once we’re done with you.”

Harry gestured to Astoria, who grinned and joined him on the stage. By the way her hand was twitched, she itched to use her sword or dagger, but Harry shook his head, raising his wand slightly. She sighed, accepting the rule of wands only as she knew this was a demonstration.

Suddenly, Astoria launched a silent Stunner, using the practice with silent spells from over the summer. Harry ducked under it, returning with a Cutting Hex that Astoria simply shielded against.

Out of nowhere, Harry felt another spell hurled at him, and he dodged to the left, turning slightly to see Daphne there, joining the duel. He didn’t really mind as it would show those watching how a duel could suddenly change at any moment, turning the odds against a person.

As Harry fired ropes at Daphne, he caught Tracey’s blue eyes and Ginny’s brown ones, and they knew to look for an opening to join.

Dropping to the ground and rolling, Harry fired two Stunners, one at each Greengrass. They dodged, but the Cutting Curse sent after hit Daphne on the shoulder and Astoria on the thigh. Harry heard gasps from those watching, but he didn’t even turn to look as he knew it was from the shock of seeing them willingly drawing blood.

A smile came to Harry’s lips as Tracey and Ginny suddenly joined in, almost Stunning both Greengrasses, who moved at the last moment as their training kicked in as it had for Harry when Daphne joined.

It was suddenly the Greengrasses fighting to defend against an uneven number, using more shields against _Expelliarmus_ and _Stupefy_ than actually throwing them. Just as one slipped past Astoria’s shield, another shield sprang up, and Harry saw Draco pointing his wand in her direction and knew it was three-on-three.

Harry took Draco as they all split up to duel, but out of nowhere, Harry threw an _Expelliarmus_ at Astoria, hitting her in the side just before Ginny’s Stunner hit her. Unable to defend herself, Astoria was out, and Ginny moved to help Tracey with Daphne.

Obviously there was a silent agreement to have no others join the duel as Harry finally Stunned Draco just moments before Daphne was overtaken, no one else having interfered.

Panting, Harry turned to the awed audience, throwing Astoria’s wand to Ginny to give back to the younger girl.

“ _That_ is how you will duel in a wands-only duel once we’re done with you,” he informed them, and he grinned as a few looked confused at his specifying the type of duel. “What you saw is only the most basic way all of us duel. As you get better, you’ll be introduced to the different types.

“Now, split up into pairs and go into the dueling circles that the Room has provided.” Harry gestured to the changed room where there were good-sized circles on the ground. “We’ll be walking around to see how well you duel, so treat this as an exam, not just a class period to joke around. As I said before, the better you do, the more you’ll learn from us.”

Harry had to hold in a grin as the students grabbed friends or acquaintances and went into a circle, preparing to duel. The demonstration duel had been the incentive they needed to realize he and his friends knew their stuff and would be able to teach them. Now they would see what they were truly made of.

 …

“The first years are definitely the lowest level, but a few second years are still there as well,” Maya said, looking at the list of students the group had out in the Room of Requirement after the first and second year testing.

“I think I saw one or two second years that might fit in with the third years if they’re at the level we’re expecting,” Neville commented.

“All very true,” Harry agreed before turning to the youngest two in the group. “Graham, Natalie, are you both willing to teach the lowest group?”

By the disgruntled looks on their faces, they weren’t pleased by this, but they nodded.

“I’m not asking because I don’t think you’re so incapable that it’s the only group you’re able to teach. Truthfully, you could both teach the second years and most likely the thirds.” Both of them grinned at that, but Harry went on. “The thing is that Terry was right the other day; the older students wouldn’t be willing to learn from you. Even if you defeat them all in duels, their pride won’t let them learn from you, but first years and a few second years would be quite willing to learn from second year leaders with your ability.”

The pair looked a lot more accepting of their position as they nodded. Then Harry turned to Astoria, who was almost glaring at Harry, as if daring him to speak.

“If you try to give me the second years, I won’t teach a single person,” she informed him, eyes narrowed.

“I was going to actually say that because of Daphne, even the fourth years would be willing to learn from you,” Harry said with a chuckle, and both Greengrasses looked annoyed with him, so he elaborated. “What I mean is that, even if they do underestimate you, none of them are willing to go up against Daphne because they know I’ll be on her side in an instant. They’d learn quickly that it’s Astoria who they have to worry about first, not Daphne or me.” The girls calmed down enough that Harry could tell them his thoughts.

“No, I was actually going to ask you to take half the third years and work with Padma to teach them.”

Padma and Astoria shared a glance before nodding in agreement. Ginny and Tracey were giving him looks, but he ignored them, knowing they had spotted the fact that he was mixing up the Houses as he chose who taught whom.

“Neville, Hannah, can you work with the second years?” Harry requested. “You both have the most patience of the group, so you’d teach them the best.” They agreed quickly to his suggestion.

“Once we test the third and fourth years, we’ll know who will teach the fourth years the best,” Harry finished. “They’ll be here in a minute, so we’ll finish this discussion later on. Places for testing them, please.”

Everyone but Harry slid into the shadows just as they had for the first testing, which had been the sixth and seventh years.

As the two years entered the room in twos and threes, Harry saw his friends all mark a different person to their attack, and he shook his head as he hid a grin. They were enjoying this _way_ too much.

 …

“Why are we testing the fifth years last, again?” Draco asked as they sat in a circle on the ground in the Room of Requirement about half an hour before the fifth years were due to arrive.

“Because most of them spend so much time studying that it took forever to choose a time to bring them here?” Daphne replied, looking at a scroll of parchment that she was writing on.

Harry was looking at a Muggle notebook full of his notes on the different students. Each one had their year, House, level decided, teacher, strengths, and weaknesses listed. In the section for the highest two levels, which were mostly filled with sixth and seventh years, Harry had already placed them into different groups with different numbers, all interchangeable. One set of groups was in pairs, another in fours, some in threes, and so on. It was all adding up to how to have two separate armies later on in the year to have a mock-battle between them all.

“So Graham and Natalie are teaching the lowest level, Neville and Hannah the next level, Astoria and Padma the third, and Terry and Susan the fourth,” Hermione listed, and Harry could feel her eyes on him. “We’ll decide on the fifth years after this, but what about the rest of us and the high levels?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Fred asked from where the twins were making some sort of potion.

“Harry, Ginny, and Tracey will teach the highest two levels,” George added.

“The rest of us will help where we wish to, going between the levels to decide when a person is doing well enough to move up or if someone needs to be lowered a level to help them more,” Fred finished.

“If there’s Quidditch practice or too much homework, there are others to fill in for those too busy to teach,” Harry added without looking up, flipping to the page with the fifth years all listed and filling in the information on their Houses and year.

“Oh,” was all Hermione said, and Harry could tell most of the others were also quiet because they hadn’t thought of that yet.

“How are we going to test the fifth years?” Padma finally asked, breaking a somewhat awkward silence that had fallen.

“The same way as we’ve tested the rest,” Harry sighed, glancing up from his notebook. “If I had an idea for a better test, we could try it, but I have nothing.”

“A maze,” Luna said from where she was laying on her back, looking at the ceiling and tracing something in the air with her finger. Everyone blinked at her idea, but then they all began to grin a bit.

“Shall we introduce them to Third Task Training 101?” Justin asked, and while those who had grown up in the Wizarding World didn’t understand it completely, they all nodded as Harry knew it was obvious what Justin meant.

…

Harry stood in a small, empty room with a doorway on the other side of it, his arms crossed over his chest as his classmates entered the room, only Draco’s four friends from the past four years were not joining them.

“You’re all here to be trained in how to fight,” he said calmly, looking at them all as they stood a bit awkwardly, glancing around the room in a bit of confusion — word had gotten to them what the room had looked like the past few meetings. “Voldemort” — he paused for the shudders, knowing he’d break them all of the habit by year’s end — “has returned, and all of us know it, even if the Ministry won’t acknowledge it in their stupid fear. If he attacks you over the summer, or during Christmas, or once we leave Hogwarts, you will be able to defend yourself to either get away or take out the Death Eaters.

“Before we can begin, however, you all must be tested.” Harry gestured to the wall behind him, most specifically the door. “I will be entering through this door. In exactly sixty seconds, this room will change so that there is a row of doors, each with a name on it. Another minute later, you will enter through your specified door to begin the testing. How you do during the testing depends upon you, but the better you do, the more we will train you with the higher stuff now.”

Harry turned to enter the door, but paused and spoke over his shoulder.

“My friends and I will be only part of what awaits you in this room, but just remember this: _we_ control what’s happening to you. Enjoy the test.” Harry waved without turning around while opening the door and closing it behind him, knowing there would be just a blank wall in its place.

Now Harry was in a control room for the maze that was below them, the others all sitting around as they waited. In the middle of the room was a table with a three-dimensional map of the maze, which would have figures running through it once the fifth years entered the maze, names floating above their heads. Around the maze were controls for the different traps, charms, and Portkeys they had decided upon, a set for each person.

Taking the only empty spot around the table, Harry sat in the swivel chair and fingered the controls. Above them was the name _Ron Weasley_ , which meant they had been kind and left Ron’s obstacles up to him.

“They’re in,” Hermione called, and Harry looked up to see fourteen red figures running from different entrances to the maze, some close to others and some almost completely isolated.

Harry spotted Ron’s figure almost instantly, it being among the three isolated in different areas of the maze. Grinning slightly, Harry pressed a button and saw a dummy walk out of the wall of the maze to hide just around the corner from Ron. Though the picture in front of them didn’t show it, Harry knew the dummy had a wand and was preparing to curse Ron.

Looking up, Harry saw that the twins had almost completely boxed in Dean and Seamus, leaving only a path that led to an area surrounded by knives preparing to be thrown and dummies. Hermione was leading Lavender to the same area that Padma was leading her twin, Parvati, to so that they could do a two-on-two. Ginny and Astoria were sharing the pleasure of torturing Michael and Anthony from Ravenclaw by launching different spells at them from nowhere.

The others were all finding different ways to torment their chosen fifth year, and Harry pressed a button to send another two dummies after Ron just as he took down the first, though he carefully placed them further away so that he was able to get somewhere.

A sudden “ _pop_ ” told Harry that someone had just disappeared, and when he looked at the maze above, he saw that Blaise was waiting for Ernie from Hufflepuff, obvious preparing to truly test him.

Ron had managed to take care of the two dummies by then, so Harry felt it was time to have some more fun by activating a corridor of spell fire that he would have to dodge to get through. It would test his reflexes and show if Harry should try an easy duel with him to see how he did against an opponent who thought for himself.

Harry saw flashes of light shoot across the corridor on the maze in front of him, the red figure that was Ron moving left, right, and even ducking as he made his way slowly forward. He couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow that anyone had actually thought to dodge rather than use a shield that would weaken him more, but then Harry realized that Ron had been hanging out with them for long enough to hear snippets of conversations about their training. Withholding a snort, Harry had to admit to himself that they had all complained about the dodge training for weeks last year when he had been practicing for the Tournament, and Ron had heard plenty of it.

Once Ron had gotten through the spell corridor, Harry knew it was about time to test him. Setting up another dummy, Harry looked up and was shocked to realize that most of the room was gone, off dueling with their counterparts. Only Tracey, Ginny, Luna, and Justin remained of the group, and it looked as if Tracey and Ginny were preparing to go duel.

The three shared a look and a nod before Ginny hit the Portkey button and disappeared from the room, Tracey following quickly. Harry turned to his controls and set up where he wanted to turn up before using his own Portkey.

Harry shivered at the feel of the Portkey, memories of June coming back, but he pushed them aside as he pulled out his wand and prepared himself for Ron, knowing his friend was headed this way. Fortunately, he didn’t have long to wait as Ron pelted around the corner only to freeze in shock when he saw Harry there, wand in hand and knees bent.

“Well done so far, Ron,” he complimented as the redhead panted a bit, wand at the ready. “It’s been very fun to watch you make your way through the maze. You’ve got talent; I’ll give you that. Now, let’s see what else you can do.”

Ron’s brow had been creasing, as if Harry had confused him, but at those words, his eyes widened slightly and he moved to the side. It was lucky he had moved as Harry had launched a Stunner right where he had been just moments before.

Internally, Harry nodded at Ron, acknowledging his instincts and reaction time, but externally he was firing spells at Ron, dodging the few he was managing to get in as he ducked. Harry could tell as he put up a quick shield to block against Ron’s sudden and strong Stunner that he had been practicing somewhere. By the looks of things, Ron would fit right in with the sixth years, but Harry wanted to discuss it with the others first.

Ron was panting heavily by then, Harry’s own breath coming a bit harder than normal as Ron challenged him more than he had expected, though Harry still wasn’t going at full speed, nor was he using anything more than Stunners or Disarmers. Still, he hadn’t foreseen Ron’s obvious ability with his wand, not after so many years of watching him struggle just to pass his classes.

“ _Stupefy, Expelliarmus, Expelliarmus, Stupefy… Stupefy,_ ” Harry chanted almost silently, moving his wand to specific places, pausing before the last spell.

Now all he did was watch as Ron dodged the first four spells, only to have the red of the final Stunner shine in his widened eyes moments before hitting him.

With a small grin, Harry placed a small red pin on Ron’s robe before tapping the green one in his hand with his wand, both of them disappearing from the maze. Harry reappeared in the control room, which was completely full again, and he knew Ron had just woken up in the room Harry had left the group in.

“Everyone done, then?” Harry asked, and his friends all nodded, though most seemed to have a slightly shocked look in their eyes, especially the three Weasleys. “I’ll just go tell them that we’re done, then, and we’ll be informing people of when to meet through the Journals.”

Harry left the room through the doorway that appeared as he walked towards the wall, understanding his friends’ need to shake themselves from the stupor Ron’s obvious ability to duel had put most of them into.

Everyone was in for a big surprise from the youngest Weasley male, that much was obvious.


	44. Chapter Forty-Four

“I’m glad to see you all decided to show up after the testing we put you through,” Harry commented as the sixth years and Ron stood before him, Ginny, and Tracey.

“With the demonstration you put on for us, no one would miss this,” Harry heard Cho mutter quietly, probably not expecting him to hear it, but Harry grinned.

“Thank you ever so much for the compliment, Cho,” he told the Asian Ravenclaw, who looked startled. “Now, I’m going to admit to you something that you probably don’t want to hear.”

All of the sixth years leaned forward slightly, and Ron just crossed his arms over his chest, watching the trio at the front of the room with a blank face Harry knew came from a summer of spying.

“By the end of today, you will resent the three of us,” Harry began, gesturing to the girls who were standing slightly behind him and who he knew without turning would have expressions to match Ron’s. “By the end of the month, you will wish we hadn’t started this training. By the end of the year, you will hate us.

“ _But_!” Harry called over the mutterings that had begun, waiting until they were silent to continue. “But, in the end, you will recognize that there is a reason behind everything we make you do, and everything done in this room will have a result. Whether you’re willing to admit that it’s positive or not is up to you, but you’ll see changes in every person who learns from my friends and me.

“Now, welcome to your newest nightmare.”

Harry grinned a bit evilly as the dummies along the walls of the room came to life, drawing wands as they moved forward. As the sixth years and Ron drew their wands, Harry and the girls drew theirs, aiming at the group.

“ _Expelliarmus,_ ” the three intoned, waving their wands over the group so that everyone was disarmed at the same time. Wands flew into their hands, and the group looked at them in astonishment.

“Your first training session today is to spend the entire time dodging the spells cast at you without a wand,” Harry informed the group. Most of them looked at him in disbelief, fear, or anger, but Ron just nodded and moved to an open area to begin. “Good luck.”

…

“They’re going to hate us by the time this month is done,” Tracey commented as the door closed behind the last of the sixth years, all of whom were walking oddly as the Stinging Hexes had hit them in some of the oddest places or just repeatedly.

“Until they’re in shape, our job isn’t to make them like us,” Harry sighed, sitting down on the couch the Room had provided. “Once the month is through and the sixth and seventh years can move more, we’ll work on spell work for a couple of weeks, then move onto hand-to-hand combat.”

“I still find it hard to believe Ron is so good,” Ginny admitted from her spot next to Harry, looking at her hands.

“We might have to move him up to the seventh year group if he keeps this up for long,” Tracey added, and Harry nodded but was looking at Ginny more than paying attention to Tracey’s words.

“I’ve been spending so much time with the group that I don’t really know my own brother anymore,” Ginny whispered, and Harry knew that, while she was speaking more to herself than anyone else, he needed to reassure her.

“He’ll always be your brother, Gin,” he said softly, looking up at Tracey as she watched Ginny. “There will be times when it will seem you’re separating from him, but in the long run, it will bring you closer to him.”

“How, Harry?” she asked quietly, and Harry put an arm around her, kissing her head.

“When this is over, when you go home for the summer, you’ll have something in common to talk about when you’re alone with him. Lately, Ron’s been so separate from us because of his emotions against me that it gave you less in common. I think that, when you talk to him, you’ll be surprised by how much he’s changed over the past year or so. Talk with him in the Common Room; maybe you can play some chess with him. You’ll be close with him again.”

“Your brothers will always love you, Ginny,” Tracey added as Ginny nodded into Harry’s shoulder, which her head was leaning on. “Family is the one thing you can always count on no matter how hard things get. Remember that.”

Ginny took a deep breath and sat up straight, nodding.

“You’re both right,” she admitted. “I’ll play chess with him this weekend, or maybe go flying. He’s still my brother, even if he has been playing with how people view him so that he can spy on the Order.”

Harry nodded in agreement before sighing and standing up, helping up the two girls. They had homework to do before classes the next day.

…

“Auror Tonks,” Madam Amelia Bones said as she looked at the pink-haired woman in front of her, Privacy Charms on her office.

“Yes, Madam Bones?” Tonks replied, standing straight and wondering why the Head of the DMLE had called for her and then proceeded to ward the room.

“How is the Order of the Phoenix doing?” Bones asked, and Tonks started a little. She hadn’t known the Director had known about the Order, let alone that she herself was in it!

“Madam?” she replied, not sure if she should be speaking of this.

“Dumbledore asked me to join at the beginning of the summer,” Bones said, gesturing for Tonks to sit, and she did. “I turned down the offer because someone needs to be here to clean up after Fudge.”

Tonks nodded, understanding the position her boss was in. Still, it was shocking that Madam Bones was actually talking about this. There had to be another motive behind it…

“I’ve heard things about the Order this summer,” Bones continued, “and I was wondering if you truly wish to be working for the Order.” Tonks blinked, but Bones went on. “I mean, is Dumbledore truly worth working with if he’s kidnapping innocent teenagers and holding them prisoner without cause?”

Tonks could only shake her head in amazement, unable to believe that Amelia Bones actually knew all about this. How could she know about it?! No one in the Order had told, unless… Tonks’ eyes widened as she realized something.

“You’re in contact with Harry Potter,” she said, shock filling her tone.

“Of course,” Bones replied, and Tonks was a bit surprised she was being so truthful about it. “There _are_ people willing to fight against Voldemort; they just aren’t willing to do it under Dumbledore’s control.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Tonks asked, but deep down she understood why and just wanted to hear it with her own ears.

“Because the third group in this upcoming war recognizes that you don’t agree with Dumbledore as much but want to help. We’re looking for those willing to help us out and not give us away.”

“Who is ‘ _we_ ’?” Tonks asked, though she had a good guess that she wouldn’t find out just yet.

“Not until we know we can trust you,” Bones said, shaking her head, and Tonks nodded, her fingers getting tangled up in her robes as she thought.

“You may go and think about this,” Bones said, relaxing in her chair a bit. “This conversation never happened. The next time you’re contacted by us, it will be through a different person, but it will only happen if we believe we can trust that you are willing to help us. We don’t ask much right now, but you’ll learn more when you choose.”

“Thank you for the offer,” Tonks said, standing up, and Bones nodded once as a dismissal and acknowledgement of the gratitude before picking up a Muggle pen and going back to the papers on her desk, leaving Tonks to let herself out.

_Well, that was interesting,_ Tonks thought.

…

“They all resent what we’re doing to them,” Theo claimed, a proud grin on his face, ignoring the essay in front of him.

“They’ll learn in the future,” Susan replied, shaking her head slightly as the group felt the stares from those they were teaching on them in The Den.

“We can’t help them until they’re ready to be helped,” Padma agreed, not looking up from the novel she was reading, her homework done.

“Just ignore the mutterings and their dislike of what they call torture until we begin the real training,” Harry told his friends, glancing up only for a moment before going back to the Runes translation he was looking up in his book so that he could finish his idea for a silencing ward for class. “Once they realize why we’ve been doing this to them, they’ll be silently thanking us while pretending they still resent it all.”

“Easy for you to say,” Astoria muttered. “You’ve got the best of the lot to teach.”

“I know we do, Astoria, but that means the three of us are actually pushing them harder,” Harry replied. “Come watch one of our meetings, if you really want to. It should only be one or two more before they’re ready to do some actual spellwork.”

Astoria nodded, and Harry knew without looking that the others had recognized that the offer was to all of them. Their next meeting would have some extra people there to watch.

…

“Ron, into the center of the circle,” Harry called, and Ron moved to stand among the dummies, his wand in Ginny’s hand. “Begin!”

As everyone watched, the dummies began shooting spells at him in groups, sometimes from behind, sometimes in his peripheral vision, and at times from in front. Most of the time he was attacked from multiple sides, the Room making the dummies work together to work Ron hard.

Through all of this, Ron was able to use his senses to realize when the spell was coming from behind. He moved with a grace most had never expected from the tall redhead, ducking under Stinging Hexes and moving from side to side. Twice he was even willing to roll before jumping up, always moving.

When he was finally hit, a bell went off that deactivated the dummies and allowed Ron to stand there, breathing heavily, as he tried to regain his breath.

“ _That_ is what we are looking for from you!” Harry called, grinning as he clapped for Ron, the others with colored Journals who had come to observe clapping as well. “Ron, you lasted seven minutes before you got hit; well done!

“When you all are at least _moving_ like him, we can begin on the real training,” he continued, and Harry saw the sixth years perk up at that news.

Ron moved out of the circle and collected his wand from Ginny, who gave him a smile and patted him on the arm. The youngest of the Weasley boys grinned in gratitude before he brought back his blank face.

“Katie, you’re next,” Harry said, and the Gryffindor Chaser stepped forward.

The rest of the meeting went like that, everyone going twice. Ron was by far the best, but there were a few others keeping up with him pretty well, and the others were almost ready for the next step of their training.

“We’ll have one more meeting like this, and then we’ll finally move on,” Harry announced after a quick conversation with the girls, and the sixth years cheered. “Just remember that this sort of thing is going to be quite common during the training, so keep on practicing when both you and the Room are free. Go; we’ll see you again on Wednesday.”

“So?” Harry asked Astoria once the sixth years and Ron were gone, leaving Harry and his closest friends in the Room.

“I’ll admit it, you’re training them harder than the rest of us are running our groups,” Astoria said grudgingly, her arms crossed over her chest. “You’ve still got the best of the lot to teach, though.”

“True, but the seventh years need to learn as much as we can teach them before they leave because this is the only year they’ve got,” Tracey reminded the younger Slytherin, and Astoria sighed, her arms falling to her side.

“I know,” she admitted. “It’s just hard knowing…” She trailed off, but all three of them knew what she was thinking.

“Knowing that you’re one of the best of us, but you’re stuck with the third years,” Ginny finished, and Astoria nodded, not looking at anyone.

“If I thought they’d listen to you with actual respect rather than fear or amusement, I’d have had you join us, but they won’t,” Harry said. “Trust me, what you’re doing with the third years will be important eventually, so just keep at it.”

Now that Astoria was quiet, the others began talking about what they had seen and how the sixth years could improve. Of course, Ron was mentioned with shock and pride all at the same time, and it was agreed that he’d be moved up if they found his spellwork on the same level as his ability to dodge.

…

“Umbridge knows that there’s something going on behind her back,” Draco whispered to Harry as they walked out of Defense.

“Then it’s a good thing we made it so that the Room won’t let anyone without a Journal into it while we’re training everyone, then,” Harry replied, and Draco nodded in agreement, but Harry recognized the worry on the blonde’s face. “What else is wrong?”

“Umbridge has been poking around at random times, as if she’s looking for something we’re not supposed to have,” Draco said, still talking quietly, but he wasn’t whispering as they were out of the toad’s earshot.

“You don’t think that she’s looking for the Journals, do you?” Harry asked, pulling on Draco’s arm as he stopped along the side of the corridor, ignoring those passing by them as he looked into his friend’s gray eyes. Worry was showing in the eyes of one of Harry’s closest friends, and Harry didn’t like it.

“She’s been making people turn out their pockets,” Draco informed Harry. “When she made the first person do it — a first year — he kept the shrunken Journal in his hand while showing that his pockets were otherwise empty except for his wand and a couple of Galleons. Now, whenever people see the toad going after them, they slip the Journal into their bags or sock and pretend it’s just a diary or notebook if she finds it.”

Draco looked at Harry quite seriously, and Harry waited for whatever else his friend wished to say.

“Harry, we need a way to hide the Journals so that no one has to worry about Umbridge’s inspections of them.”

Sighing, Harry nodded, running his hand through the mop known as his hair. He hated to admit it, but he, Tracey, and Ginny were going to have to spend an evening figuring out some way to hide the Journals so that they weren’t in anyone’s pocket, but were still in easy reach and could be felt if they were heated.

“The girls and I will work on it,” Harry promised, and Draco nodded seriously, turning to lead the way to their next class.

Now they only needed an idea.

…

“That is so _obvious_!” Harry exclaimed, hitting himself on the head as Ginny mentioned her idea. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you were aiming for a more difficult option and forgot that the most simple can usually work better?” Ginny suggested with a cheeky grin.

Rolling his eyes, Harry gave her a quick kiss to get rid of the annoying smile before turning to Tracey, who had been watching in amusement.

“We’ll have to ask the girls to give us what they want us to charm so that it’s not all the same. Some of the guys can provide us with stuff, but mostly we’ll have to use the leather again.”

Tracey nodded in understanding, before adding, “We’ll work on it this weekend. Spend the rest of the week getting what we need together. Make sure you label whose is whose.”

…

“We’ve heard about the trouble you’ve all been having with Umbridge, though I believe she’s giving the younger students more trouble than you,” Harry said at the end of the first lesson on spells as he looked at the seventh years in front of him. “The three of us spent most of the weekend charming necklaces, bracelets, leather cords, and even a couple of earrings so that all you have to do is stick a normal-sized or shrunken Journal to them and it’ll stay there.

“Because they’ll still be against your skin, you’ll be able to know when to pull it off and read it,” Harry added, gesturing to the Journal hanging from the leather cord around his neck alongside the chain with his parents’ rings on it. He had decided against using the chain again, just in case Umbridge tried to confiscate the Journals because she figured it out.

Ginny and Tracey went through the group, giving girls back their jewelry and the guys leather cords they had made for them, some thicker than others and most ranging in different colors so that it didn’t stand out as much that a bunch of guys suddenly all had the same necklace around their necks.

Harry knew that, throughout the next few days, all of those with Journals would be receiving the hiding place for the Journals as it would be useful even after Umbridge was finally gone from Hogwarts.

…

Samuel Davis stood watching the Auror trainees practicing hitting targets across the grounds of his home, sometimes calling out advice when one was having trouble with a distance or spell.

The past two months had been very busy since the teens had gone to Hogwarts. Over a month of it, Samuel had spent at Davis Manor, teaching his trainees how to duel and fight a war every day.

Sirius, Remus, and Fleur were all spending time gaining information on what was going on in Wizarding Britain while Daniel and Samantha were searching for possible hiding places for the final Horcrux. The others helped with the Horcrux hunt when they could, but knowing what both the Order and the Death Eaters were up to was just as important as the hunt, especially while most of the fighting between the groups was going on behind-the-scenes.

On another topic, Amelia had told the group that she had spoken to Tonks. It had appeared to the Head of the DMLE that the Auror in question had been truly thinking about it, as if her thoughts truly were somewhat darker when it came to the beloved Headmaster. Maybe, just maybe, they’d gain another adult to the group to help with all that was going on.

Of course, the news from Hogwarts had been anything but good. Blood Quills being used on students for detention, Hogwarts professors being inspected and insulted without punishment, and just terrible rules being enforced upon the students. Luckily, Harry had come up with the same idea that had come to mind a couple weeks before he had brought it up. Now they were at least giving the students an excellent Defense course, allowing even the youngest to be able to at least run from Death Eaters if attacked, which was what was important.

All there was left was for Harry and the others to realize that they had the makings of an army following them. Well, they would once the resentment for the physical training on how to dodge was gone, Samuel admitted to himself with a silent chuckle, remembering the amused comments made by Harry and Tracey through the mirror about comments and looks from students because of it.

One of the few good things Samuel had heard from Hogwarts was about Slytherin’s win over Gryffindor, though Harry had admitted it had been awfully close until he caught the Snitch because Ron Weasley wasn’t as bad a Keeper as they had been expecting from him, catching them a bit off guard.

Still, now it was time for Samuel to make sure there was an Auror force prepared to fight the day-to-day battles.

…

“Dumbledore is meddling, as usual,” Delores Umbridge told Minister Fudge as she sat across from him in his office one Saturday evening that she felt she could be away from the school for an hour or two.

“Are you certain he is using the school to create an army to take the Ministry from us?” Fudge asked, leaning forward slightly.

“I’m afraid he is, Minister,” Umbridge sighed. “The students are resentful that they are not learning spells, as if they feel it is holding them back! I feel they are upset because they’ve realized we’re on to them and are stopping the army from getting any stronger.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Fudge agreed a bit distractedly, nodding as he looked around the office, his eyes slightly glazed over.

“Minister, I’ve also noted some… curious behavior among the students,” Umbridge brought up hesitantly, her brow creasing a little in her inability to put her stubby, thick finger on the problem she felt in her bones was occurring. “Students whisper in passing, and they write at times you wouldn’t expect them to be writing. I’ve also noted groups disappearing at very randomized and staggered times, unable to be found when I’ve searched. It is most of the school, and I must admit it has me concerned about what they may be doing or planning.”

“What would you suggest?” Fudge asked, his eyes widening a bit as he thought of terrible possibilities for why those odd occurrences were happening.

“A decree that all clubs are to be disbanded unless the Inquisitor approves the club,” Umbridge suggested, a glint appearing in her toad-like eyes that Fudge didn’t notice as he thought about the idea.

“A very good idea,” Fudge agreed. “Their activities appear to be that of a meeting taking place. I’ll have it for you shortly, Delores.”

“Thank you, Minister,” Umbridge said sweetly, hiding the dark edge behind the sweetness as she thought of the destruction she could do by not permitting certain groups to reform.

“Now, what has Potter been up to?” Fudge asked, leaning forward again as he listened carefully. Umbridge frowned at the question, thinking of the boy.

“He has been very quiet lately, but it makes me fear what he is planning so as to create more chaos not only at Hogwarts, but for the rest of Wizarding Britain,” Umbridge said, an uncertain edge to her tone. “It is very possible Dumbledore is working through the boy, but I have not yet seen any evidence of the two of them even conversing in any way. In fact, it is as if the boy does all he can to stay away from Dumbledore.”

“Perhaps it is just their way of trying to trick us into believing that they are not working together,” Fudge suggested. “Delores, please keep an eye on both of them. There is something fishy going on at Hogwarts with those two, and I want to know what!”

“Of course, Minister,” Umbridge replied with a nod, hiding her grin as she bowed her head momentarily, wiping her face clean as she looked back at the Minister again.

He had no idea the sort of power he had just given her.


	45. Chapter Forty-Five

“She’s disbanded the Quidditch team!” Draco exclaimed as he looked at the notice board in the Slytherin Common Room, his arms thrown into the air as he snarled a bit. Harry actually had to hit him lightly on the head to calm him down, reminding the Animagi of when he had reminded each of them that he was Alpha.

“On what grounds can she do this?” Tracey asked, and Harry knew she was mostly upset for the sake of her friends on the Quidditch teams.

“She doesn’t need any,” Blaise said, snorting in disgusted amusement.

“Draco, just go talk to her,” Harry sighed. “You’re captain, and it’s not like she has a reason to keep Slytherin from playing. Even if she tries, we’ve got Snape and a lot of Purebloods on our side.”

Taking a deep breath, Draco nodded as he realized Harry’s advice was sound. Luckily, in Harry’s mind, the others were calmer now that they heard that as well. All they could do was wait.

…

“You dare to stop _my_ Quidditch team from reforming?” Snape demanded of Umbridge as he stepped into her open office, his wand ready to be drawn at any moment.

“I told young Mr. Black that, if he changes the players, he may reform the team, but until then, Slytherin cannot be reformed,” Umbridge told the furious Slytherin Head sweetly.

“That team is the best we have had in all my years teaching at Hogwarts,” Snape said through gritted teeth. “If you do not allow my team to reform with the players it currently has, I believe there are quite a number of families who would just _love_ to speak with you and the Minister, as well as a few of my old friends.”

Snape watched as Umbridge’s face turned dark, but then she cleared it and nodded. Good, he thought, she understood the threat being thrown her way and realized _he_ had the power in this situation.

“Please inform Mr. Black that the Slytherin team has been reinstated,” she said, her own teeth now gritted.

Nodding, Snape turned on his heel and swept from the room.

…

“Well done, Euan!” Natalie called to her fellow Gryffindor leader as he managed to disarm the dummy he was practicing the Disarming Charm on. The boy turned to grin at her for a moment before going back to do the spell again once the dummy had its wand back in its hand.

Natalie grinned as she watched the first years practicing the Disarming Charm, a few having moved on to the Stunning Spell. They were all progressing amazingly, though they all needed to work on their dodging skills some more. Still, they had done well enough that she and Graham had agreed to move on to spell work every other meeting.

The first years met most often of everyone, but they only stayed an hour while the fifth, sixth, and seventh years were usually there for two to three hours if they could manage it.

In fact, Natalie thought the fifth years were being taught in another part of the Room of Requirement, probably being driven up the wall with the tougher spells they were being forced to learn before moving on to hand-to-hand combat, which the first years would be beginning in another three weeks or so.

“They’re doing well,” Graham commented, coming up behind her, and Natalie nodded.

Like Harry and Tracey, she and Graham just knew one another. He was close to Maya as well, but Natalie and Graham had grown up together, learned together. Natalie was one of the few who could get Graham to do things just by asking once, and they had instinctively helped one another when they were doing mock-battles around Marauder Manor.

Teaching the first years together hadn’t been much trouble given that the first years were the ones they were closest to besides their own year and the colored Journal group. Everyone in the room with them now respected their ability and just the two of them in general. They were kind to those they were teaching, and it showed in how there were grins and even some laughter as they all learned, enjoying the time together, even if none of them really liked dodging days…

Natalie went over to Rose and helped her through the wand movement for a Stunner, her thoughts broken by the frustration on the first year’s face.

…

“We need a name, you know,” Luna commented dreamily one afternoon as the group enjoyed one of the final days where it would be possible to go outside without freezing as it had warmed up one last time in November.

“But Luna, we’ve already got names,” Fred said in confusion, and Harry rolled his eyes.

“Why would we want to change them?” George asked. Harry heard a few groaning lightly at their bad humor.

“I’m pretty sure she means the training needs a name,” Hermione informed the two blandly, and the twins pretended to be relieved.

“She has a good point; we don’t have a name for it yet,” Ginny said, sitting up from where she had been resting her head in Harry’s lap, his fingers working their way through her soft hair. “What should we be called?”

“It depends on what we really are,” Harry sigh, leaning his head against the trunk of the oak he was leaning against, his eyes closed. “Are we just a defense group, or is this going to become something larger in the future?” Harry sensed the confusion in the air around him, but said nothing as he waited.

“What are you talking about?” Terry finally asked, and Harry opened his eyes to see that not a single person understood where he was going with the idea, though Luna looked to be thoughtful.

“When Voldemort returns, are we going to be training to go out and attack the Death Eaters during the summer, or is there another reason we’re training everyone?” Harry asked, and he saw a few eyes lighting up as they began to understand.

“You’re asking if the reason we’re doing this is to protect Hogwarts,” Astoria stated, but Harry just raised an eyebrow.

“If Voldemort attacks Hogwarts, are we going to sit around and let the adults handle it, or will we stand up and protect the school?” Harry asked quietly, knowing the answer in his heart, but wanting to hear it from his friends.

“Protect Hogwarts, of course!” most of them exclaimed, though in different ways. Luna said nothing, but Harry recognized that she would be willing to fight. With the looks Ginny and Tracey were giving him, he knew they were asking “ _Are you seriously asking us this_?”

“That’s the perfect name, you know,” Tracey commented suddenly, and everyone turned to her. “The Hogwarts Protectors. I mean, that’s what we’re going to all be once we train the others more, right? Why not just admit it by calling ourselves that? Plus, we can use ‘The Protectors’ or ‘The HP’ or something along those lines when talking about training so that the toad won’t understand.”

“Brilliant, sis,” Harry said with a grin, and the others all agreed with him. Tracey blushed slightly but smiled, leaning into Theo’s side.

Ginny settled back down with her head in Harry’s lap, and they all continued to relax, ignoring homework and thoughts of the toad in favor of enjoying what time they had before they rejoined reality in the form of training their fellow students.

…

Harry was sitting at one of the tables in the Common Room, unable to work in The Den as it was after curfew. The professors had given them a pile of homework earlier on, and he wanted to get it done as he had Quidditch practice the next day after classes.

He didn’t even look up when he heard someone walking up to him, expecting it to be Tracey or one of the others. It was quite the surprise when the person stopped beside him, creating a shadow over his work.

Looking up, Harry blinked in surprise at the sight of a tall seventh year, his brown hair a mess, as if he had been grasping it with his hands for a while in frustration, like he himself did when thinking hard about something he couldn’t decide on.

“Weston,” Harry greeted with a nod, cautious as the sixth and seventh years were the only ones in Slytherin not in the Journal group besides Parkinson, Bulstrode, Crabbe, and Goyle.

“Potter,” Robert Weston returned. “May I sit?”

Harry gestured to the chair across from him, confused by this. Glancing around the Common Room, Harry was shocked to realize all of the sixth and seventh years were grouped together and watching the pair. It seemed Weston was the spokesperson for the group, which made Harry sit up straighter as he recognized this was going to be very important indeed.

“Potter, those of us in sixth and seventh year have been watching you since your first year when you went against the status quo. We didn’t do anything about it as you were only dealing with the first years and a few older students like the Weasley twins when they came to you.”

Nodding, Harry waited. In his mind, he remembered how the older students had gauged what he was doing before ignoring it. Well, not ignoring it, Harry admitted, as they had watched him closely and learned who he was friendly with, but they didn’t interfere.

“When it continued to include the first years every year they came to Hogwarts, we grew curious,” Weston admitted. “The older students didn’t like it at all and were muttering about it when you were gone from the Common Room, but we, the ones closest to you in age, just watched, trying to understand. Eventually, we all realized you were just offering another path for them to follow, one they decided to take.” Weston shook his head a little before looking Harry in the eye again.

“Once we understood what you were doing, we just listened and left you alone. The thing is, we all came to realize that what you said wasn’t wrong at all, just different. None of us was willing to join your group, but there was no animosity coming from us anymore.”

Harry was shocked by the admission, but it also made him realize that maybe this was also why the older students had joined so easily. They had been able to watch, listen, and learn throughout the years as Harry converted the youngest in the school. Now he just had to figure out what Weston wanted.

“Then June happened,” Weston said, and Harry understood where this was going. “Families were approached in Slytherin, trying to convert them to the Dark Lord’s ideals. Many here have families sympathetic to the idea, but they aren’t following the Dark Lord. The only ones who follow the Dark Lord are those in your own year.”

Harry nodded. The only four in his year not in the Journal group were the ones with Death Eater families, and they just wouldn’t be converted, not even when Draco tried. In fact, they had turned Draco away so much that he actively tried to avoid them.

“With Umbridge here, none of us are learning a thing,” Weston almost snarled, and Harry withheld a grin, knowing that Astoria had been correct; the one thing that would affect them would also turn the neutrals to Harry’s side. “In fact, Hogwarts has almost become a war zone with the fighters preparing for the battle about to come. If Umbridge succeeds in getting Dumbledore out of here, Hogwarts will be pure chaos, almost destroying everything here.

“This will be perfect for her, but what about those of us unwilling to join the Dark Lord when we leave Hogwarts?” Weston gestured to the group still watching them, and Harry nodded at the group before making eye contact with Tracey, who was sitting with the others, also watching, before turning back to the seventh year in front of him.

“We will need to be able to fight when we leave, and every student in the school knows you and your friends have a sort of training going on.” Weston stopped talking, knowing just as well as Harry did that the request had been passed on; it was up to Harry now.

“Before anything else, I have to ask you one thing,” Harry told the seventh year, who nodded once. “You say you agree with what I’ve convinced the younger students of, but what have I convinced them of?” Weston looked a bit surprised by the question, but then he took a deep breath and looked at the wall beyond Harry, obviously organizing his thoughts.

“I grew up being told that were the best and that Muggle-borns and even Half-bloods weren’t worth my time,” he informed Harry, who listened attentively. “Slytherin was the only House my Slytherin parents wanted me Sorted into; if I hadn’t been Sorted here, I’d have been disowned from the family. My first two years were full of those feelings, and I acted as if I was among the best in the school, just as most of the Pureblooded Slytherins did.

“Then in my third year, you, Harry Potter, came to Hogwarts.” Weston shook his head, lips twitching. “Within the first week you had turned the castle on its head, not the least because you were a Slytherin. Over the next two years, my classmates and I watched you, listened to you. There were times in this very Common Room that you were almost preaching to the first years about how they should try to just talk with the other first years, not even asking about their heritage. You told them to just tell someone who didn’t understand something about the Wizarding World what they didn’t know, and you understood that the Muggle-borns and Half-bloods would do the same for the Purebloods.

“All of us were shocked that you were trying to not only unite the Houses but make the younger students forget about where a person came from, caring more about getting rid of prejudice and feud in the school. What’s more, you did nothing more than explain your ideas and give suggestions on how the first years could find it out for themselves; you didn’t force it onto them.

“We began talking to a few Ravenclaws, ignoring their heritage, just to see what it was like, and it surprised us all to realize you hadn’t been lying when you said that they were just like us, just with different habits and ways of thinking. Our new friendships were very thin and hidden, but they were there, and we kept at them.

“Now, in my final year at Hogwarts, I’ve been taught in over four years that what I learned growing up isn’t true. Even though you never tried to convert the older students, you’ve managed to do it anyway.”

Harry couldn’t say anything for shock at what he had heard. The way Robert Weston had spoken of it, Harry knew the seventh year wasn’t lying, but Harry hadn’t seen any hint of this occurring. Of course, knowing Slytherin, they had probably kept it hidden on purpose.

“Can you see this?” Harry asked, pulling his Journal from the leather cord around his neck and returning it to normal size.

“What is it?” Weston asked, his eyes wide in surprise, so Harry knew he could see it. Shaking his head, Harry turned to see all of the sixth and seventh years staring at the emerald green Journal in both shock and confusion.

“These are how the Hogwarts Protectors are communicating so that Umbridge doesn’t catch us when we meet to train,” Harry explained, turning back to Weston. “Almost every student in the school owns one, and they mean that the student agrees that blood and Houses don’t matter. If they change their mind, they’ll lose the Journal and be unable to see them, forgetting about the book for good.”

“What does it mean that all of us can see yours?” Weston asked curiously, watching as Harry opened it to show him what it looked like.

“It means…” Harry paused for a moment, visibly worrying the older boy until he grinned, “that you and your friends are both ready and welcome to join the Journal group and Protector training.”

…

Amelia Bones calmly walked through the halls of the Ministry of Magic calmly. Around her, workers waved and greeted her, and she returned them all with a nod or a smile, depending upon how close to the person she was.

Internally, though, Amelia was seething.

She had just left a meeting with the Minister of Magic, who had been informing her of the situation at Hogwarts upon her request. To say she was furious was an understatement.

Minister Fudge had told Amelia that Madam Umbridge was an immediate success. There had been a few snags, of course, and Dumbledore was meddling and interfering where he shouldn’t be, but the students loved Dolores Umbridge and had yet to make a complaint against her. In fact, Fudge was very pleased with how everything was going at Hogwarts, stating that Dolores reported a welcome change in the students, leaving them less argumentative and much better behaved.

Amelia, unlike Fudge, understood _exactly_ what was occurring at Hogwarts and why the students had changed so drastically.

If Dolores Umbridge wasn’t gone by the end of the school year, Amelia would personally drag her from the castle with her own two hands after Stunning her into oblivion for what she was doing to those students.

_Sixteen_ more students had come to her with pictures and memories of detention with Umbridge, Blood Quills quite obviously being used!

Fortunately, Harry had cautioned the students to take the quills with them the next time they had detention after writing a single line on a sheet of parchment so that they had even more evidence. While Umbridge had tried to stop all of the students, their physical training had allowed most of them to become more fit and able to run much faster, permitting an easy escape from their professor. They then went on to give Harry and Susan all of the evidence they asked for, which was then sent to Marauder Manor through Kreacher, who responded to both Harry and Draco’s calls.

If it wasn’t for the Hogwarts Protectors training, as Amelia knew they had come to call it, she understood how dire the situation at Hogwarts would be. The knowledge of going behind Umbridge’s back to break the rules was stopping much of the possible rebellion at the school, especially because the students had finally realized why their teachers had “tortured” them so much, allowing for quick movement, fast reflexes, and large repertoires of spells.

The teens reported a lot of success in just a month and a half of training their classmates, and the only times they weren’t at least proud while talking through a mirrors were those different Blood Quill incidents. Susan had actually told her aunt privately when Harry allowed her to use the mirror that she felt the students would be close to or at Auror level by the end of the school year. Amelia had understood the remark as her niece’s way of suggesting she make offers to the seventh years should they wished to join the second Auror force.

Still, in Amelia’s mind, what Fudge was doing by giving Umbridge so much power was unacceptable. When the Ministry finally had to admit that Voldemort had returned, she would be making sure Fudge and Umbridge fell harder and faster than the peace did.

Seething but calming bit by bit, Amelia took a deep breath and sat down at her desk, forcing herself to make it through the day before she could vent.

…

Harry stood in the Room of Requirement, his wand aimed at a dummy in front of him. A muttered spell led to the sudden appearance of steel darts in the air, launched at the target within moments of being conjured. Every single one of them hit exactly where he wanted whether it was in the eyes, the heart, a wrist, or the forehead.

“Well done,” Weston said from behind him, and Harry spun to see that his fellow Slytherin had entered the room as he practiced. “I was wondering how long it would take you and your friends to begin using Transfiguration and Charms while dueling.”

“We use them, just not as well as we will in a year or so,” Harry replied, glancing back at the dummy to see that the Room had already returned it to its former state. “Once we learn more conjuring in class as well as stronger animation spells, we’ll be using them and make our duels even more chaotic than they are now.”

“You know, I might just have a proposition for you,” Weston said with a tilted head, looking past Harry at the dummy that had just been impaled by darts.

“I’m listening,” Harry stated, crossing his arms with his wand still in hand.

…

“Good,” Tracey called as she, Harry, and Ginny walked amongst the seventh years who were all throwing punches and kicks.

Harry had a bag on his arms and was standing in front of each student, telling them to give it all he or she had so that they could be sure the moves were being done correctly. So far, he hadn’t found a single person not using movement to make the punch or kick as strong as possible, though he was also relieved he hadn’t had the breath knocked out of him as of yet.

“I think that’s enough,” Ginny informed the group as Harry finished with the last person. “Now we’re going to work on different blocks.”

It was the beginning of December, and the students had been learning quite well from Harry and his friends. Finally, after a lot of work and results, those learning had been put through the exact same test they had originally been forced into, though the fifth years were not tested as they were ahead of the other groups given their smaller number, and the students had realized why their “teachers” were training them how they were.

The physical work was certainly paying off now as the martial arts were added to their lessons, swords to be begun in February. Of course, the little detail that it had been unanimously decided by those teaching that the martial arts would cover for the physical training except on certain occasions had probably helped their moods.

Harry had plans to begin teaching the Patronus Charm just after break along with using daggers if the hand-to-hand combat was going well enough.

Everyone had promised to run for at least thirty minutes straight every day of break in place of the normal training, understanding that their teachers would know the first time they met again when they got back if they hadn’t kept it up.

Watching Tracey and Ginny train the seventh years while he walked among them to fix stances and positioning of arms, Harry was pleased with the progress of the training. As long as they kept this up, all of the students would be able to protect themselves pretty well by the end of the year, and the younger students would be even better equipped after another year of this.

…

Harry woke up one morning with a massive headache, a nose so stuffed up he could barely breathe through it, his stomach churning, his throat sore enough that he didn’t even want to swallow, and feeling as if he were on fire even in the dungeons.

Squeezing his eyes shut against the dim light of the room, Harry moaned quietly. Instantly, Draco was at his side, obviously having already woken up, if the robes he was wearing meant anything, Harry thought in the short moment he opened his eyes.

“Are you okay, Harry?” Draco asked, concern coloring his voice.

“I think I got the flu that’s going around the castle,” Harry said softly, trying not to aggravate his headache. “Should have expected it when both Ginny and Tracey got it a couple of days ago…”

“Come on, Harry, we need to get you to the Hospital Wing,” Draco said, a bit hesitant as he touched Harry’s shoulder.

“Can I just stay here?” Harry groaned, already knowing the answer and resenting it.

“Theo, Blaise, come help me, please,” Draco requested without replying, and Harry knew there was going to be no way out of this, not with three of them against him.

“What’s up?” Theo asked.

“Harry’s got the bug this time,” Draco informed the pair, and Harry heard understanding noises from his friends. “Come on, Harry, at least get your cloak on so that we can help you get to the Hospital Wing without too much trouble.”

Sighing quietly, Harry sat up, froze for a moment to allow the dizziness in his head to dissipate, and then stood up slowly. One of his friends fastened his cloak on him over his night clothes and gave him his glasses. Once they were on, Harry slipped into his trainers, ignoring how they rubbed on his bare feet a little, and followed his friends from the room, his eyes stinging a little, obviously a bit bloodshot with sleep.

“What’s wrong?” Daphne asked as they four met her and Tracey in the Common Room.

“He’s got my and Ginny’s bug,” Tracey sighed. Harry knew she was obviously recognizing the pain in his face and remembering her own forty-eight hours with the flu virus before the potion Madam Pomfrey gave her finally finished its work. “Come on; let’s get him to the Hospital Wing. Ginny and I can cover for with the Protectors for the next day or two, and Madam Pomfrey will get him out of class until it’s gone. We’ll just bring him his homework so that he has something to do.”

The others nodded and helped Harry out into the castle and up to the Hospital Wing, hiding him in a corridor when Umbridge passed by. Other students looked sympathetic when they saw his appearance and realized he was sick, especially the ones who had already caught the bug, and they wished him well. Teachers they passed — Snape, McGonagall, and Flitwick — all informed Harry that they’d send his homework up with his friends.

In the end, Harry had to spend two days and one night in the Hospital Wing with only his schoolwork and friends to distract him from boredom.


	46. Chapter Forty-Six

Nymphadora Tonks did not know when the second meeting with her boss’s people would occur, but she knew that she was quite willing to work with them now. Dumbledore had been taking things slowly, not even allowing them to train to be sure they were on top of their game for a Death Eater attack. This just wasn’t the way she wanted to fight the war.

She was leaving the most recent Order meeting when Fleur Delacour, a new member from only a couple of months before, walked up to her and put an arm around Tonks’ shoulders.

“I was wondering if you would like to ‘ave dinner wiz me, Tonks,” she said quietly, but in a voice that could be heard if someone wished to. “You are ze closest to my age, and it would be nice to talk to someone. Plus, I do not know you very well, and I would like to.”

There was something in Fleur’s blue eyes that made Tonks agree to the idea, and Fleur suggested the Leaky Cauldron.

When they were settled down with their meals, Tonks watched Fleur put up Privacy Charms around the table, her surprise and suspicion growing. An idea was growing in her mind, and she wasn’t sure whether to like the thought or not.

“We ‘ave seen you are zinking differently from a monz ago,” Fleur commented, stabbing some salad with her fork and placing it in her mouth as she raised an eyebrow at Tonks.

“You’re in the Order to spy on them?” Tonks asked in disbelief, and Fleur laughed a little.

“I was already part of zis group before I joined ze Order,” Fleur told her. “It was decided we needed another source of information, and Dumbledore provides well. ‘E ‘as sources we will never ‘ave, so we zought it would be smart to take advantage of it. When I see them, I tell them nozing more zan what Dumbledore says Voldemort ‘as been up to and where he might be. Zey do nozing wiz ze information but collect it, keeping it in zeir minds so zat it may be used if zey want to.”

“What would I be asked to do, if I agreed to all of this?” Tonks asked, frowning a bit.

“You ‘ave not seen Auror Samuel Davis at ze Ministry much lately, ‘ave you?” Fleur asked, smiling a little as she continued to eat.

Tonks thought back and realized that she _hadn’t_ seen Auror Davis in a long while. Not since September, now that Tonks truly thought about it. But what did that have to do with anything, unless…

“He’s part of the group as well?” Tonks whispered in disbelief, her eyes wide and she knew her hair had just gone a few shades of a darker pink. Again, Fleur laughed at her words.

“Samuel Davis is not just _part_ of ze group, Tonks, but one of ze original people fighting against Voldemort even before ‘e returned.”

Tonks blinked and then asked, “What does this have to do with me, though?”

“Ze reason ‘e ‘as not been seen at ze Ministry since September is because ‘e is training a second group of Aurors,” Fleur informed Tonks, who was gaping at the girl. “When ‘e agreed to it, ‘e asked Madam Bones if ‘e could ‘ave ‘elp, and you are ze choice. Ozerwise, ‘elp me report about Voldemort and gazer any information you can. Zey ask nozing more of us.”

Tonks nodded absentmindedly as she ate a chip, her mind spinning at what she was being told. She, a relatively new Auror, was being asked to help train a second, secret group of Aurors. What’s more, this third group in the war was only asking for basic information and a willingness to help out. In truth, it was a better deal than she had been expecting.

“Where do I sign up?” Tonks asked Fleur, who grinned and held out a sheet of parchment for her.

It was time to actively participate in the war.

…

Harry grinned as he saw the astonishment on the faces of the sixth and seventh years as they entered the Room in groups of three at the most.

Today, for the last meeting before Christmas, they were going to have a little war game between the two groups. The room in front of them looked like a small village, though Harry had purposely made sure it wasn’t Hogsmeade as these students needed to learn how to find passages and hiding places quickly in an unfamiliar environment, which Hogsmeade certainly _wasn’t_ for them.

“Seventh years on that end of the village, and sixth years plus Ron on the other,” Harry said, pointing to one side of the area. “Tracey and Ginny are waiting for you there to tell you what’s going to happen. Now go!”

Still smiling in amusement, Harry watched them run off to their destinations, knowing he’d be enjoying this battle more than he really should be.

Shaking his head, Harry walked through a door none of them had noticed to watch from the same room that had been used for the maze test. He and the girls were going to have a little fun.

…

Ron stood near the back of his group, watching as Ginny walked over to them. He had a feeling he knew what this was all about, but he wasn’t going to say anything until it was confirmed.

“Good, you’re all here,” Ginny said, looking at them all, and Ron caught her eye for a moment before she turned away. “Knowing Harry, he’s left all the explanation up to me, so we’d best get started.

“Today we decided to let you all have some fun as a final meeting before the break, so we’re having a battle between the two years.”

All around Ron, the sixth years broke out into whispers, muttering back and forth about how they weren’t expecting this at all and how they couldn’t beat the seventh years. Internally, Ron was rolling his eyes at them, but he kept a blank face as he thought about possible strategies just from his walk through the town.

“Calm down, calm down!” Ginny called, and they all quieted down to listen to her. “Once Tracey and I go to where the three of us will be watching, you’ll have twenty minutes to think of a strategy and get ready. We’ll send out red sparks when you have a minute left and green sparks when it’s time to begin.

“The only rules are no permanent damage, and no weapons besides a wand. If you try to change the Room to a different environment or to get something not already in here, you’ll be frozen for thirty seconds with an arrow above you showing the other team where you are so that they can easily Stun you and take you out, so no taking advantage of the Room!”

A few sixth years were shifting on their feet, and Ron knew they had been planning to take advantage of it. Luckily, they had the ideas already forming in his head. This was just like a chess game, at least until the fighting began.

“The first team to take out everyone on the other side wins,” Ginny finally said. “Hostages are permitted as long as they aren’t hurt in the process — at least not too badly.”

Ginny grinned and a few chuckled, but Ron knew they were worried about going up against older students who had an entire year of knowledge on them, let alone Ron, who was two years behind the seventh years. Still, if they used the environment correctly, they could win, even with the disadvantage.

“I’ll leave you to your planning,” Ginny finished, grinning as she tapped her wand to something in her other hand and disappeared.

“Does anyone have any ideas?” Katie Bell asked hurriedly, immediately turning to face the group once Ginny was gone, and Ron saw that most of the sixth years were worried and already giving up. The main consensus was that they had already lost, so why bother?

“I have some,” Ron said, and eyes turned to him, but he saw that they weren’t really going to listen to him, at least not most. “If you don’t listen, I’ll just leave all of you to a battle that we could win if you listen to me.” That got some attention, he thought with an internal grin.

“What do you have?” Cho Chang asked, looking curious but already obviously unable to believe he had anything _good._

“First of all, there are a lot of alleyways with windows looking down at them,” Ron informed the group, allowing himself a small smile when many began to check down the alleys nearby. “If we set up people in the buildings around certain alleys, we could lure people into them and ambush them from above.” Around him, many were nodding at the possibility.

“Another idea would be to check if there are any cellars,” Ron continued. “If there are, pick three or four of them and have more than one prison for hostages so that not all are rescued at once if one of them is found.” Ron watched as a few people went into the closest buildings and reported they all had basements. “Make the prisons in random buildings not next to one another so that it’s harder to find them,” he suggested.

“Also, those of you’re good in Transfiguration can take things from inside the buildings and make a defense in an area, pretending it’s where we’ll hold hostages when really only two or three people are there to keep an eye on stragglers we miss.”

As Ron spoke, a few Ravenclaws and a Hufflepuff went into a couple of buildings and brought out furniture, two to each table, chair, or couch. Then the group all worked together to make it into a base about three-fourths of the way down the main road from the seventh years.

“Finally, the rest of us try to use the roofs or maybe find passageways from building to building so that we can sneak up on the seventh years,” Ron stated once everyone was quiet, their time half up. “We might not know as much magic as them, but we can outmaneuver them and use the spells we _do_ know to the best of our ability.”

Ron fell silent, backing away a bit as the sixth years stared at him with a bit of awe, but also a lot of respect. He had taken away their helplessness and turned it into hope and a will to win this battle to prove that knowledge didn’t mean an automatic success. The way he had taken in so much detail and made plans had surprised them all, but they respected him more for it.

Despite not showing it in classes, Ron was quite observant, and he had gotten a lot more intelligence when it came to schoolwork now that he wasn’t being as lazy, though he still turned in mediocre work, only slowly increasing the quality slightly each essay. Watching his friends, being in the Hogwarts Protectors, and maturing even more than ever after the Third Task had made Ron Weasley realize he had to work harder in classes if he was to survive and help, so that was what he was now doing, even if it only showed in these lessons in Defense.

“You heard him,” Katie finally said, breaking the silence. “Let’s make up teams and move!”

…

The battle that took place in the Room of Requirement between the sixth years and seventh years was a lesson to both teams and something they would remember for years to come.

Once the green sparks flew in the air above them, the seventh years began making their way down the main street of the town, single people, seemingly random, slipped out of the group to go down the backstreets in the shadows.

Those separate from the main pack in the backstreets all caught sight of single sixth years looking around the corner of random alleyways. Following their younger classmates, the seventh years began falling one-by-one into ambushes. Two Stunners shot from windows above the seventh years both hit, and around the town, a fourth of the seventh year force fell with the rest unaware.

As the Stunned were taken to the four different prisons set up by the sixth years in the cellars before the sixth years rejoined their friends moving throughout the town to make their ways to the seventh year base, the seventh years were feeling proud that their plan seemed to be going just fine. The seventh year scouts had made their way out of the group, and there was no sign of the sixth years. It seemed that they were too afraid of their older counterparts to be willing to actually fight them.

Then, the sixth years attacked.

A group suddenly began hexing both sides of the group from atop the buildings, pulling back and moving around almost constantly so that they were hard to hit. Once the seventh years were distracted by them, others poured out of the alleyways and from both sides, boxing the seventh years in so that they couldn’t escape.

On the other side of the town, where the seventh years had set up base, those who had been slipping through a series of tunnels found attached to a few select cellars suddenly jumped out of entrances in the middle of the street, spells flying. Others from the ambushes on the scouts joined them shortly, taking out the seventh years that had been left behind to guard the base until what had been expected to be an easy victory had occurred.

In the end, only an eighth of the sixth years had been taken out in the time it took for every seventh year to fall.

They all knew it was over when the town disappeared.

…

“Well done sixth years!” Harry announced once he and the girls had Portkeyed to the group, all three grinning and Harry even clapping lightly for the group. “Even though it seemed you were going to lose the battle because of the seventh’s year larger experience, you got past it and outmaneuvered them.”

“Seventh years,” Tracey added, a look on her face that Harry recognized as one meant to make them disappointed in themselves. “You should have realized that, just because you’ve got a year more education — two years, in Ron’s case — doesn’t mean you’ll automatically win. This battle just proved what planning, environment, and tricks can do the win a victory. There’s a reason many prefer to fight on their own turf.”

“The seventh years learned not to allow themselves to become so sure of themselves or overconfident that they believe they can’t lose,” Ginny continued, “and we know the sixth years learned that it isn’t just knowledge that leads to victory. Now you all need to take these lessons and put them to good use.”

“All of you, make sure you run over the break,” Harry said with a grin. “Think on this battle and what happened during it. Now, all of you, go enjoy your vacation.” They all began talking to one another and heading to the door when Harry called you, “Ron! Stay behind, please.”

The redhead nodded and stopped, getting punches on the shoulder from the sixth years as they thanked and congratulated him. Finally, they were all alone.

“You did amazingly today, Ron,” Harry said after a few moments of silence. Ron looked up a bit hopefully, and Harry grinned at his friend. “What you did with the sixth years, giving them their hope back, giving them a strategy, it was exactly what they needed. Without that, the seventh years would have torn you all apart, but you didn’t let it happen. You were a leader in that moment, Ron.”

“Definitely my older brother,” Ginny added, moving to hug Ron, who hugged her back mostly as an instinct, a shocked expression on his face.

“From now on you’ll do training with the sixth years and join the seventh years for the mock battles we have planned throughout the rest of the school year,” Harry informed his friend.

“Really?” Ron asked, eyes wide, but a smile beginning to form on his face. Harry knew that the redhead was excited at the prospect of more mock battles to help in.

“Definitely,” Tracey stated with a sharp nod and a grin.

“You’ve earned it, mate,” Harry told Ron, walking out of the room with the three of them.

…

“It’s nice to be able to just let go like this,” Harry sighed, watching his friends run around in the Room of Requirement. It had transformed into part of the lake outside of Hogwarts and part of the Forbidden Forest, allowing them all to relax by the lake or run around in Animagus form.

“We haven’t been able to do it enough lately,” Ginny agreed from her spot between his legs as Harry leaned against an oak tree, watching the others.

“Between dodging Umbridge, training, Quidditch, homework, and preparing for OWLs, it’s been a very crazy term so far,” Harry stated, and Ginny only nodded.

“Of course, it’s also been taking away from your time with me,” she reminded him, turning enough for him to be able to see her raised eyebrow.

Harry could only grin a little bit sheepishly as he knew she was right. Everything going on in his life took away from the fact that he did, in fact, have a girlfriend he should be spending time with.

“Harry,” Ginny began, turning and pulling away from him slightly so that she could look him in the eye, “training and school work aren’t the only things you need to be concentrating on right now.” She sighed lightly, and Harry just waited. “Yes, Voldemort is back, and yes, we need to get ready, but that doesn’t mean the other things in our lives need to be pushed away until he’s gone.”

This time, it was Harry who sighed, leaning his head against the tree trunk as he closed his eyes. He knew deep down that she was right, but it was so hard to remember at times with so much going on around him.

Ginny’s lips on his startled him, making him open his green eyes to look into her chocolate brown ones, which were staring at him intensely.

“I know it’s hard,” she whispered softly against his lips, “but you need to remember that there’s still fun in the world. Enjoy it while we still can.”

They said no more as both took advantage of this chance to get reacquainted with one another.

…

“She’s finally done it,” Tracey muttered quietly from the shore of the lake, Daphne and Theo with her as Blaise chased Draco around in their Animagus forms for something Draco had said.

“Done what?” Theo asked, and Tracey turned to him, grasping his hand lightly.

“Ginny’s finally reminded Harry that he still needs to live his life,” she told him. “He’s been so intense about training lately that he’s only thought about that, Quidditch, and school work.”

“That would explain your conversations and the way you’ve been looking at Harry lately,” Daphne noted. Tracey turned and nodded at her friend. “You’ve been that worried about him?”

“He’s been taking too much of a war that hasn’t even truly started yet onto his shoulders,” Tracey sighed, shaking her head slightly, looking out at the lake. “It’s all going to be too much for him in the end if we don’t try to make him relax now.”

“He’ll be fine,” Theo said softly, rubbing Tracey on the back with the hand not holding hers. She nodded slightly.

“I know, but I’m worried about how long it’ll take him to return to normal when this is all over if we don’t help him from the beginning,” Tracey admitted. “Fine could mean alive or it could mean a lot of other things, not what we wish it would.”

“Whatever happens, we’ll help him through it,” Daphne declared. Tracey nodded.

Internally, though, she had to ask herself one question: But at what price?

…

Graham was walking through the corridors alone the afternoon of the last the day of term. He’d be going back to Marauder Manor the next day along with most of the Colored Journal group.

Normally he’d be spending time with Natalie or one of his other friends, but today he needed to be alone with his thoughts, which were spinning out of control.

So much had been happening this year, and it made living at Hogwarts hard.

Umbridge had been on a rampage trying to figure out where the different groups of students disappeared to at random times. Luckily, with only Filch to help her, the Ministry spy hadn’t come even close to finding them, not when they had Journals and Maps.

Still, the different Educational Decrees from both she and Fudge were forcing the castle to become more of a prison with lessons in it than a school that the students could enjoy and love.

The only things enjoyable anymore were the Hogwarts Protectors meetings, which included basically the entire school, only a few students not joining in.

Well, he amended, Umbridge did do _one_ good thing at Hogwarts, even if it was at a horrible price. Without her the Slytherins wouldn’t have chosen to break their neutrality and join the Journal group. As Astoria had said the year before, whatever made the Slytherins choose would affect them all badly, but at least it finally happened.

Sighing loudly, Graham stopped to look down at the snow-covered grounds through a window on the fifth floor. Students in black cloaks were down there, throwing the snow around at one another, making snow angels and snowmen, and enjoying the snow.

Unfortunately, Graham just wasn’t in the mood to enjoy the weather, not with his darker-than-normal thoughts.

He loved Hogwarts, but this year had been unbearable so far, and it seemed things could only get worse before they got better.

Footsteps approached him, and Graham spun around to see Harry walking up to him, hands in his robe pockets as he strolled along. The older Slytherin came to a stop beside Graham, looking out the window, having not once looked at the second year. Graham looked back out the window, recognizing that Harry wasn’t going to speak just yet.

“Having the dark thoughts as well, Graham?” Harry asked softly, and Graham looked up at the fifteen-year-old quickly before nodding as he looked back at the students below.

“It’s hard,” Graham admitted quietly, “knowing that something bad is coming and the Ministry won’t be ready, those in the Wizarding World won’t be ready. What makes it worse is that students — eleven-year-olds! — are going to be more prepared than adults done with school just because the Ministry is forcing the Daily Prophet to deny everything and make it seem like people’s own children are liars.”

“I know what you mean,” Harry said, leaning his elbows against the windowsill and leaning his head on them, looking at the cloudy sky rather than the grounds. “I’m supposedly the biggest liar of us all, yet every single student at Hogwarts knows I’m not lying because they were _there_ at the Third Task, they all _heard_ you reporting what happened to me, what happened to Cedric.

“Then, when Voldemort finally reveals himself, we’ll have to deal with the fact that they’ll all be trying to make it up to me, to pretend as if they had believed me all along even though we all know they didn’t.”

Harry sighed as Graham watched him. The teen’s shoulders had sunk, and he had moved so that his hands were under his glasses, covering his emerald green eyes, which were most likely closed.

“This war is going to be harsh, and the death count will be worse than the last war just because no one is acting now,” Harry continued. “The second Auror force will help immensely, but it won’t be enough, not without the common people preparing as well.”

“We’re going to lose a lot of lives before this is through, aren’t we?” Graham asked. Harry looked at him, his hands falling to his sides as he took in Graham’s stance. The twelve-year-old knew that he looked his age at this moment because he was afraid of what was to come and was showing it to the older boy.

“Yeah, we are, Graham,” Harry sighed, reaching out to put a hand on Graham’s shoulder. “But we’ll make sure that none of them are students if we can help it.”

Graham nodded and moved into Harry, hugging him as he put his face into the older boy’s chest. Graham knew that Harry was startled by the slight stiffening of the boy’s body before he hugged Graham close, mostly because Graham didn’t normally show this much emotion, but Graham needed to be reassured right now, and he knew that Harry would understand.

“Graham, we’ll survive this to live normal lives,” Harry whispered into his ear. “Ginny had to remind me of something, and now I’m going to remind you. We all have to live our lives like normal people, not just concentrate on schoolwork and the war. Go outside and play with Natalie; I know she’s been worried about you lately. Enjoy yourself because you’re still young and should have some fun. When the time comes, we’ll be ready.”

Pulling away from Harry, Graham nodded, smiling slightly.

“Thanks, Harry,” Graham whispered as he turned to race downstairs to join the girl he knew was waiting just outside the castle doors for him as that was where she always waited for him when he needed to be alone for a while, even if it meant sitting there for hours on end, skipping meals.

“You’re welcome, Graham,” were the words that echoed down the corridor behind him, a smile in the tone.

 


	47. Chapter Forty-Seven

“It’s good to be back,” Harry sighed as he collapsed onto his bed, Sirius and Remus at the door to his room.

“Well, we like having you all back, finally,” Sirius told his godson, and Harry looked up to see both men were grinning at him.  
  
“The manor is just too quiet without you kids here,” Remus agreed.  
  
“Impossible!” Harry exclaimed, sitting up. “Two Marauders in a huge manor such as this one, and it’s actually _quiet_? I need confirmation of that one!”  
  
A few moments later, all three were laughing, the men joining Harry on his bed, sitting on either side of the laughing teen.  
  
“He has us there, Padfoot,” Remus said once he could speak again, and Sirius nodded while trying to calm down his laughter.  
  
“What’s so funny?” Tracey asked from the doorway, obviously done unpacking thanks to magic.  
  
“These two,” Harry began, gesturing to the Marauders, “actually claimed that Marauder Manor was quiet without us kids here.”  
  
“And you asked them how it could be quiet with two Marauders in this huge manor, eh?” Tracey guessed, grinning a bit. Harry just nodded happily. “He has a point, you two,” she informed the two men, whose shoulders shook slightly with silent mirth.  
  
“So Remus told Sirius,” Harry told Tracey, who nodded in understanding.  
  
“Well, I came up here to tell you that the others were hoping for a snowball fight on the same proportion as the one last Christmas,” Tracey stated, grinning mischievously.  
  
Harry sat up a bit straighter in anticipation, pulling out his wand and waving it at his bags so that they unpacked. Another wave brought two extra pouches to him, which he attached to his belt next to the other four.  
  
“Good thing I asked Fleur about that spell,” Harry commented, standing up quickly. “How long can you give me?”  
  
“Twenty minutes,” Tracey replied, and Harry knew the two men were a bit shocked by their behavior, but they didn’t understand what Harry and Tracey were up to. “I might be able to push it to thirty if I try hard.”  
  
“Try, please,” Harry requested, and she nodded. “What’s going to be the range?”  
  
“Entire grounds,” Tracey replied with a smirk, and Harry’s eyes lit up at the thought.  
  
“Definitely get me the half hour,” he stated. “I’ll have done all I can by then, and I’ll work on getting more as we fight.”  
  
“Okay, what is going on?” Remus asked sharply, obviously worried by their words as he and Sirius didn’t know what they were talking about. Harry knew that he and Tracey were seemingly talking in code, but really, it was more understanding what the other wanted than anything else.  
  
“Snowball war of epic proportions,” Harry informed them with a grin. “We’re talking tactics. Now, I’m sorry to cut this short, but Tracey needs to run interference, and I need to get outside.”  
  
“Need help, Tracey?” Sirius offered, and Harry saw that he had picked up on what they were planning, or at least the basics of it.  
  
“If you help, we might be able to give Harry more time,” Tracey said in agreement, nodding as she led the group out of the room, Harry pulling on his Invisibility Cloak as they went.  
  
When Harry left them, his feet charmed to make no sound and leave no disturbance where he stepped — meaning no footprints in the snow — Remus was still lost, and Sirius and Tracey were already making plans to slow the others down.  
  
As Harry reached the front door and slipped out, his hand was in one of his many pouches, the feared grin on his face as he began making his traps.

…

Harry laughed cheerfully as he walked into the kitchen, his arm wrapped around Tracey’s shoulders in triumph, her own arm around his waist. The others followed them in, muttering darkly under their breaths through grins.  
  
“Were all of those traps yours?” Remus asked the pair as everyone took off cloaks and used Warming Charms to warm themselves.  
  
“Well, Ginny helped design them, but yeah, they were ours,” Harry replied, shrugging it off a bit.  
  
“Still say it wasn’t fair for Tracey to run interference so that you could go set those up for almost an hour,” Daphne muttered, and many of the others nodded, but the pair just laughed.  
  
“You’re only annoyed because you didn’t think of it yourselves!” Tracey declared, and by the looks on their faces, she had hit the problem right on the nose. “Don’t be mean to us just because you don’t like how we came up with a good idea.”  
  
“This is all great to hear, but I believe Astoria and Daphne have a couple waiting to see them,” Daniella told the group as she walked into the kitchen, where they had all converged to try and find hot chocolate.  
  
Astoria tore out of the room, Daphne not far behind her. Harry and the others left them alone, knowing they needed a chance to say hello to their parents. They had been unable to truly hear from their parents since leaving for Hogwarts because the couple couldn’t go to the Manor, and the mirror was kept there for security reasons.  
  
“Should we tell them that Draco is Astoria’s boyfriend?” Tracey whispered into Harry’s ear.  
  
He looked up at his almost-twin and grinned as he saw the glint in her eyes. The teens all knew that the pair liked one another, but neither had done anything about it yet, so maybe this would help that relationship along… or just make it more awkward. Either worked for Harry.  
  
“It had better come from you,” Tracey warned him quietly, and when he looked at her in confusion, she elaborated, “They won’t be willing to try to hurt or kill you because they know they won’t succeed, not even Astoria.”  
  
Grinning, Harry nodded in acknowledgement before moving to go find the Greengrasses, the others following.  
  
“Daniel! Samantha!” he called, grinning as he rushed over to hug the pair. After that, the room was full of greetings from everyone.  
  
As Harry stood back, watching, his eyes fell upon Astoria and Draco, who were standing side by side, the tension in their bodies obvious. Even though their faces were hiding it, they both felt awkward standing there, especially when they spotted both him and Tracey watching them with matching grins. These grins were the ones that scared all who recognized them.  
  
“So, what’s been going on at Hogwarts with all of you?” Samantha finally asked as everyone, adults included, was finally settled down around the living room. “Daniel and I haven’t really been in a position to ask all of you, so we know only what the rest of these people tell us.” She gestured at the Davises, Sirius, and Remus.  
  
“Well, the Hogwarts Protectors are going well,” Susan began with a grin that quickly spread to the other teens.  
  
“Actually, we might need swords and daggers for everyone to bring back with us from the assorted vaults,” Harry commented, and the adults nodded in understanding. They all knew that, while the Room of Requirement could provide training swords for the group, only objects brought into the Room at some point in time could be brought out.  
  
“Ginny, Harry, and I had the sixth years, seventh years, and Ron all go through a mock battle during the last meeting,” Tracey added.  
  
“Ron is really becoming a real leader,” Harry stated. “He came up with the strategy, gave the sixth years hope when they had none, and won the battle.”  
  
“We’ll have to keep an eye on him,” Maya commented, and the others agreed, though Harry noted the adults gave no opinions, understanding that this was for the teens to decide.  
  
“How are you and Ginny doing, Harry?” Daniella asked, and Harry turned to the woman who had basically become his mother.  
  
“We’re doing well,” was all he said, but Tracey hit him on the arm and told her, “Ginny had to snap some sense into him because he was letting schoolwork and training get in the way of his time with her.”  
  
“Hey!” Harry complained. “I don’t see you and Theo spending much time together when I look at the Map during free time.” Harry knew he had his sister there when she glared slightly before turning to look at Theo.  
  
“Anyway, maybe you should be talking to Astoria and Draco,” Harry added, grinning at the pair as their heads suddenly snapped to look at him from where they were sitting on the same couch.  
  
“What’s this?” Samantha asked curiously, turning to look at her youngest daughter. “You and Draco, Astoria?”  
  
“Harry’s just trying to be annoying, mother,” Astoria told her as Draco glared at Harry, promising vengeance later on. “Draco is a friend.”  
  
As Harry watched, Draco winced slightly even as he continued to glare at Harry, and Harry knew immediately that the blond didn’t like the term used to describe his and Astoria’s relationship. All Harry did was raise an eyebrow, and Draco sighed, turning away from Harry to face the two Greengrass parents.  
  
“Are you sure, Astoria?” Samantha asked with a raised eyebrow, her lips twitching.  
  
“Yes, Mum,” she groaned, “I’m sure.”  
  
“Hmm,” was all that Samantha Greengrass said, looking between the pair with an air of amusement about her.  
  
Harry leaned back, throwing his arm around Tracey’s shoulders. Then he looked around at the rest of the room.  
  
The adults were all shocked, but the teens were trying quite hard not to laugh. Well, except for Daphne, who had a neutral look on her face, though when Harry caught sight of her blue eyes, he knew it was because she was both amused and annoyed. Quite understandable, considering the conversation’s topic.  
  
“Harry, why did you say they were going out?” Remus finally asked once the shock began to wear off. Harry only smirked.  
  
“Hey, Trace?” he asked, turning slightly to see that she had turned to face him as well. “Did I ever say they were going out?”  
  
“Don’t think so,” she replied, also smirking. “I’m pretty sure you only said that they should be talking to Draco and Astoria.”  
  
“Very well done coming to conclusions, though,” Harry commended them with a grin. “I was hoping for more of a show, but oh well, this was good enough.”  
  
Astoria and Draco were glaring at him, most of the teens were still shaking with mirth, Sirius had barked a laugh, the Davises and Remus were obviously amused, and the Greengrasses were staying carefully neutral, which Harry took to mean that this amused them to no end.  
  
Chuckling under his breath, Harry took pity on the pair and turned the conversation to plans about how to train the Hogwarts Protectors, known as the HPs in insecure areas, when they got back.

…

“Why?” was all Draco asked that evening. Harry glanced up from where he was doing his homework at his desk to see the blond standing in the middle of the bedroom, his arms crossed and a hard look on his face, the door closed behind him.  
  
“Because everyone knows, and you need to get a move on, finally,” Harry replied, standing up to turn his chair around so that he was facing his friend, sitting again.  
  
“So you told her _parents_?” Draco demanded, and Harry shrugged.  
  
“You all were teasing me and nagging me in front of the adults about Ginny for _months_ ,” Harry retorted, and Draco calmed slightly as he remembered those times and realized Harry was only returning the favor. “It’s obvious you need incentive to actually _ask_ her, so I gave you one.”  
  
“You mean the threat of her father?” Draco asked, disbelief coloring his voice as he finally dropped his arms and pulled out his wand to conjure a chair to sit on.  
  
“I was actually thinking along the lines of it being out in the open so that you’re both thinking about it.” Draco’s eyes widened slightly, and Harry just grinned. “All you have to do now is act on those thoughts.”  
  
Harry thought Draco was going to grumble about it, but then Draco’s head fell. Startled, Harry half stood before Draco’s gray eyes met his, and Harry saw the anguish in his friend’s eyes.  
  
“How can I ask her?” Draco asked quietly, and Harry stood up completely to kneel by his friend. “She doesn’t want anything more than friendship with me, so how can I ask her for more than she wants?”  
  
Shaking his head, Harry told his friend, “Astoria only said that to her parents because it’s all that she thinks that _you_ want.” Draco blinked slowly, confusion quite obvious on his normally stoic face. “Draco, have you ever truly shown Astoria how you feel?”  
  
“Of course not,” Draco whispered shaking his head. “How could she ever want me? My father is a _Death Eater_ , Harry!” Draco’s voice had risen in volume, but Harry didn’t move. “Even if I do not share the name Malfoy with him anymore, I’m _still seen_ as a Malfoy! How could _anyone_ want to be with someone with this, let alone _her_?”  
  
“You just answered your own question, Draco,” Harry stated, and Draco looked up in despair, shaking his head silently. “Your _father_ is a Death Eater, not _you_. Anyone who _truly_ knows you, like Astoria does, can look past your history and see the person you really are. How could she _not_ want to be with you, Draco?”  
  
Harry closed his eyes and shook his head momentarily before meeting Draco’s eyes head on. “We can’t choose who our family is, but we can decide how to live our lives outside of our own family. You’ve chosen, and I say you’ve chosen well!”  
  
“Do you really think she could fancy me?” Draco asked softly, his eyes closed and face covered by his hands, elbows leaning on his legs.  
  
“Draco, _everyone knows_ that she fancies you already,” Harry laughed, and his friend’s incredulous look only made his laughter grow. “Mate, she’s been watching you since the summer!”  
  
“Really?”  
  
“If you just _talk_ to her, you’ll find that she fancies you just as much as you do her,” Harry said firmly, and finally Draco looked hopeful. “Go and talk to her.”  
  
Harry stood, pulled Draco from his chair, and pushed him towards the door, turning to return to his Charms homework. Behind him, he heard the door open and close, the footsteps of his friend fading down the hallway.

…

“Finally,” Tracey sighed as she settled down against the side of the pool beside Harry the next day. “I was afraid they’d never get together.”  
  
“They were driving us crazy with the tension,” Harry agreed with a nod, his eyes on the two underwater blurs he knew were Draco and Astoria swimming.  
  
“You and Ginny did the same to the rest of us, you know,” Tracey reminded Harry, but he just grinned slightly.  
  
“Only because none of you caught on until December that we were actually already going to the Ball together,” Harry replied. “The tension you all saw was really anticipation and amusement.”  
  
“True,” Tracey sighed just as Astoria and Draco finally came up for air not far from the talking pair.  
  
From the way they were looking at one another, Harry knew their conversation the night before had gone _quite_ well. Of course, the look on Draco’s face had told them all how it had gone with its mixture of shock, pleasure, and happiness. Harry wasn’t sure if Daphne was pleased or disgusted by it all, mainly because it was her younger sister and one of her closest friends.  
  
“As long as I don’t have to watch them do anything, I’ll keep my peace,” Daphne had claimed earlier that morning when they had all been in the dining room, eating breakfast.  
  
“Race you to the newest couple!” Harry suddenly called to Tracey, basically throwing himself from against the side of the pool to swim as quickly as he could, Tracey making a sharp noise before following after him.

…

“Hey, Trace?” Harry called softly as he entered her room. “I just had an idea…”  
  
“What about?” she asked.  
  
“The seventh years, when they leave, they won’t have a way to know when we need them or to tell us they need help,” Harry explained. “What if I had an idea so that they could get that help?”  
  
“What is it?” Tracey asked, and Harry knew it was going to come true.

…

Harry ducked as spells from five different places flew over his head, aimed by those who had decided to team up against him in the free-for-all duel.  
  
Just then, Tracey aimed a spell at Astoria, shocking the younger girl enough that she got Stunned by it. Harry shot Tracey a thankful grin, relieved that she had been only pretending to be against him to do a sneak attack on the one person who would challenge him the most.  
  
Cries of outrage rang across the room as the others saw Astoria fall, and the pace of the spells fired at Harry and Tracey sped up immensely in anger. It was all Harry could to do shield and dodge them all, trying his best to help Tracey when he could.  
  
Finally, the others slowed down enough for Harry to disarm Susan, Tracey catching Justin’s wand from the air at the same time. When the rest saw that, suddenly the entire group was against the almost-twins except for Graham and Natalie, who were helping the pair from outside the circle around them.  
  
Maya shot a spell at Tracey and suddenly spun to aim a Stunner at Graham, who didn’t even notice it until Natalie put up a shield to protect him, the red light having caught her attention. Eyes widened slightly, Graham began to duel his older sister. Natalie was there to help, but she also fired at the circle.  
  
Theo got Stunned by Tracey as Harry distracted him with a Cutting Curse to the leg. Draco then hit Tracey on the shoulder with a Cutting Curse of his own, allowing the blood to trickle down her arm until it made it harder to grip her wand.  
  
Furious, Tracey silently gave Harry a glance that he understood, so he shielded them both long enough for her to heal her arm, shake most of the blood from her wand, and switch to her left hand, making the magical piece of wood easier to keep a hold of. Once she had succeeded at that, Draco’s gray eyes widened in fear at the icy blue glare sent his way from the girl, who began dueling with him and him alone.  
  
From the side of the room, the revived duelists were watching from where they rested against the wall, some with knees drawn up to their chests and others with legs crossed. The adults watching with them had made the rules perfectly clear: once stunned, the adults would revive them, but their turn was over.  
  
Of the adults watching, there wasn’t a single one not impressed by the dueling ability being displayed by the teens. When the end of summer had come, their fighting hadn’t been anywhere near this speed or style. As they watched, Harry suddenly conjured a flock of small, yellow birds to distract a few people. Before the school year had started, none of them had been at that level of Transfiguration.  
  
“Impressive,” Sirius whistled, watching how the others took the birds in stride and got rid of them easily, most just Vanishing them.  
  
As, one-by-one, those fighting Harry fell, Graham finally managed to Stun his sister, though he was panting heavily by the time he succeeded. Natalie protected him until he suddenly Stunned Daphne, who had been about to take Harry down from behind. When Harry heard the noise, he turned enough to see what had occurred and to nod in thanks at Graham before returning to dueling Blaise.  
  
Finally, though, it all ended with Harry, Tracey, and Graham still standing, Natalie having finally been Stunned by a stray spell from Draco just before he was felled by Tracey’s wand.  
  
“This isn’t done until there’s only one person standing, you know,” Samuel Davis commented off-handedly from his place against the wall as the adults realized the three were done.  
  
“That’s what you wanted,” Tracey said, shaking her head with a small grin, “but we have our own rules.”  
  
“They won,” Hannah agreed pointing at the three of them.  
  
“Natalie did as well,” Neville added in helpfully.  
  
“But she was Stunned,” Sirius said in confusion, his brow furrowed as he looked around the group.  
  
“When we do free-for-alls, they turn into two teams, usually a small one against a large one, and whichever team is left standing, the entire team wins,” Harry explained, waving his wand to summon four small towels, handing Graham and Tracey one each. He then took a third to wipe the blood from Tracey’s arm, wetting the towel with a quick spell.  
  
“Your rules just told us that we couldn’t revive people to make it last longer,” Natalie added in helpfully, rushing to grab water bottles for the four of them.  
  
“You kids have some very odd rules when you duel,” Daniel Greengrass said, shaking his head, but they could all see the smile on his face.  
  
“Proud of it,” all of them replied in one voice before laughing.

…

“Do you think they’ll be ready?” Samuel asked the group in front of him late that night after the teens had gone to bed.  
  
“If it comes down to a battle, they will be, but I hope it doesn’t,” Remus sighed.  
  
“I think we all hope that,” Amelia said, her face grim. “But we all acknowledge the fact that if there’s one place Voldemort will try to attack other than the Ministry, it’s Hogwarts. Once he’s out in the open, we’ll get only a year or two at the most before he’s controlling the Ministry and attacking Hogwarts.”  
  
“Maybe this group of theirs will stop the school from being destroyed, the students murdered without hesitation,” Daniella Davis said hopefully.  
  
“ _That_ is up to the students,” Samuel sighed.  
  
“They’ll be up to the task,” Sirius said confidently, his chin raised with pride in the teenagers.  
  
“I hope you’re right,” was the thought going through most of the adults’ minds.

…

“We’ll prove you right,” Harry whispered under his breath from his spot on the stairs, where he had been standing since he went downstairs to find some tea as his throat had begun to hurt a bit, stopping him from sleeping. “If nothing else, we’ll prove you right,” he swore.

 


	48. Chapter Forty-Eight

Harry stood in front of the seventh years just two days after Christmas Break, looking over them as they dueled one another to be sure they had followed orders over the holiday, which they appeared to have done.

In his mind, Harry saw two images at once: the seventh years and the Auror trainees Samuel and Tonks were training. As of now they were at almost the same level, but Harry knew that by the time they were done this year, the seventh years would be beyond the Aurors. The idea would probably shock the seventh years, but it was the truth, Harry knew, as he thought about the pace they were keeping as they learned how to truly duel.  
  
Finally, Harry called, “Enough!”  
  
The seventh years stopped, and Tracey and Ginny rejoined him at the front of the group. Water bottles were grabbed and half drunk in one gulp, towels used to wipe sweat from brows. Even while they all did this, though, all the students were paying attention.  
  
“I believe you’re all ready for the next step in your training,” Harry stated, and the two girls gave him sharp looks, but he just grinned slightly. The seventh years were excited but also wary, having learned that the unknown was not something they enjoyed from this trio.  
  
With a thought, Harry watched the wall behind the group transform, the Room doing its job. Along the wall were rows of swords and daggers, just waiting for the seventh years to begin using them.  
  
“Your next stage in training is behind you,” Harry informed them with a grin, and everyone turned and froze in shock. “Take only the dagger that feels completely balanced in your hand. No swords just yet.”  
  
“We’re really going to learn how to use those?” Lee Jordan asked, his eyes wide.  
  
“Of course!” Ginny exclaimed with a grin. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have even mentioned it.”  
  
“It gives us an unexpected edge because most wizards don’t expect swords or daggers, especially from kids,” Tracey said, the last word with a sarcastic edge to it.  
  
“We’ll spend the rest of this lesson learning the basic moves with a dagger as well as a few tips that you’ll find will help you in a fight,” Harry finished. “Now go grab the dagger that fits you so that we can begin.”  
  
The seventh years needed no further prompting to move to the far wall. As they searched, the girls turned to Harry.  
  
“Are they ready for this, Harry?” Tracey asked, and just raised an eyebrow. “I know, I should trust myself, but I think it’s still a little early for them.”  
  
“Trace, I’d normally agree with you, but these guys have NEWTs coming up while we take the OWLs, so we’ll all have less time in a few months,” Harry sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose under his glasses. “If we don’t start a little early, we won’t get the chance to train them properly enough so that they can continue on their own after Hogwarts.”  
  
When Tracey still looked a bit dubious, Ginny added, “He has a point, Tracey. You know this is the group we have the least amount of time with, so we need to move them along faster than any of us will like.”  
  
“Fine,” Tracey finally sighed, and Harry knew she was mostly just worried about training them wrong. “Let’s get to work, then.”  
  
Nodding, Harry turned to look at the seventh years, most of whom already had found their daggers to use.

…

“Patronuses?” Katie asked in surprise as Harry worked alone with the sixth years only a week after break.  
  
“Yes,” Harry said. “With Voldemort back, it’s only a matter of time before he uses the Dementors again, which means you all need to learn how to use a Patronus. The next several lessons will be only the Patronus and normal physical training.”  
  
“Can you show us yours?” Ron asked, speaking up for the first time that day. The others looked just as interested as the redhead.  
  
“ _Expecto Patronum_ ,” Harry called quietly, his wand pointed above the heads of the older students. “Everyone, meet Prongs, one of the few connections to my father that I have,” Harry said as the silver stag galloped to the ground and around the room, looking for a danger before it just walked among them.  
  
“Wow, it’s so pretty,” Cho gasped, and Harry smiled sadly.  
  
“Unfortunately, Cho, they’re not meant to be pretty, though you’re quite right that they’re beautiful,” Harry said, allowing his magic to wane so that Prongs disappeared. “A Patronus is hard to learn, and it’s even harder to use against a Dementor. What you have to do is think of a time when you were truly happy, or felt loved. Everyone, think of a time now.”  
  
Harry fell silent as the sixth years and Ron closed their eyes to think. He knew this was only the basic way to learn, but if they saw results from the very beginning, he would be able to teach them what sort of thing a Patronus truly needed to work.  
  
“Once you have your memory, allow that feeling to fill you up, and then say the incantation _Expecto Patronum_ ,” Harry continued as he saw eyes opening around the group.  
  
Soon the room was filled with calls and silver wisps, but the group was pleased with itself when Harry told them it was really good. Now what they had to do was try to think of happy emotions whether they were love, happiness, or laughter, it could even be all of them together, and Harry informed them of this.  
  
Once they understood this idea, Harry told them all to just keep practicing the spell, and he walked among them then, giving advice on memories and emotions, telling someone when he or she needed a stronger thought in mind.  
  
All in all, the teens were quite pleased and proud at their work by the time they had to leave, even though none had a Corporal Patronus.

…

Harry forced himself to stay silent as he left the Defense classroom with his friends, his face an emotionless mask and his normally shining green eyes dull.  
  
When they finally got to the boys’ dormitory, he went straight to the wall and punched it as he screamed pure fury. The adrenaline and anger kept the sharp pain of his hand from reaching his brain even as the others rushed over, Tracey grasping his hand lightly as she looked it over.  
  
“ _Why_?” Harry snarled quietly, but he knew the others heard him. “ _Why_ would _anyone_ put that — that _bitch_ at a school full of students?!”  
  
A sudden heat in his hand reached his brain, and he looked at his right hand to see Tracey’s wand pointed at it, probably healing the bone he broke by punching the stone wall. The open wounds were already closed and the blood cleaned off.  
  
“How could she have gotten worse in just a month?” Harry asked rhetorically, knowing his friends had no answer. “It’s only been two weeks since break!”  
  
“She’s planning something,” Daphne said, and Harry turned along with the others to face her, but they all knew she was right.  
  
“Something’s going to happen, and soon,” Draco said in agreement, nodding.  
  
“What could make her so pleased that she’d openly taunt you, Harry?” Theo asked. “I mean, she _knows_ that antagonizing you won’t do anything for her because she can’t use a Blood Quill on you for detention.”  
  
“I don’t know why she did it, but I was about to snap in there,” Harry sighed, sitting on his bed. “If the class hadn’t ended when it did, I probably would have.”  
  
“We could all see that,” Tracey told him softly, sitting down beside him and placing a hand on his shoulder.  
“I wish there was some way to get revenge on that woman for all she’s done,” Harry groaned, flopping back onto the bed, pulling off his glasses and putting them on his pillow so that he could cover his face with his hands.  
  
“If only she wouldn’t get so much worse because of pranks on her,” Blaise sighed from where he sat with Daphne on his bed. “Then it would be so easy to get revenge.”  
  
“The time for pranking will come,” Tracey told the group. “Until then, just think about how many rules we’re breaking because of the Hogwarts Protectors and how annoyed she must be, knowing we’re up to something, but unable to find out what.”  
  
Harry cracked a grin at the thought, though he was still covering his eyes with a single hand.  
  
“Come on,” Daphne finally sighed. “We’ve got that essay for McGonagall to do.”  
  
“At the rate this homework is going, we might have to slow down on the training just because the OWL students are being piled high so much,” Harry grumbled, pulling on his glasses again as he sat up, spotting similar expressions of aggravation on his friends’ faces.  
  
“Or we could just have some of the others teach with only one of us there,” Tracey suggested, and Harry paused before shaking his head at his own stupidity.  
  
“We could just have Ginny teach the sixth and seventh years as long as others — maybe the twins or Astoria — are there with her,” he told her, and Tracey nodded in agreement. Harry knew it was now a mental note for both of them to talk to Ginny about it as the teachers gave the two of them a larger workload in preparation for the tests in just over four months.  
  
Unfortunately for the group, homework was calling them.

…

Astoria nodded to herself as she watched the third years run through the moves she had taught them over and over, walking among her students and correcting one here and there just slightly.  
  
They had come along well in the single week they had been using the daggers, she knew. Soon they would be at the point to begin using them left-handed as they had learned to use their wands. After that would come learning to use them while doing their hand-to-hand combat lessons, fighting one another with dulled blades.  
  
At least using the daggers had stopped the complaints of physical training because everyone had realized _why_ they had been forced to do them; one doesn’t use a weapon like a dagger or sword without being able to move well.  
  
Pleased with the results, Astoria went back up to the front of the group and pulled out her own dagger, turning so that her back was to them as she walked them through a new series of moves.

…

Neville walked up to the second years, Hannah just behind him and to his right. The two twelve-year-olds they were aiming for had their backs to the older pair, but the other second years nodded so that Natalie and Graham turned around quickly, grinning a bit as they spotted their friends.  
  
“Can we take a seat?” Neville asked for the pair, gesturing to the two empty spots on either side of their friends, and everyone at the table nodded.  
  
“Do you need something?” Natalie asked kindly, looking from Hannah beside her to Neville on the other side of Graham.  
  
“As you all probably know and have heard, OWLs are coming up, and the professors are getting worse and worse about homework and revision for the fifth years,” Hannah started, and the second years nodded, though Neville saw poorly-hidden smirks on their faces. He barely held back the urge to shake his head sadly at their thoughts that obviously surrounded the students complaining about OWLs.  
  
“It’s going to be hard for the two of us to continue teaching you second years as often once we get closer to June,” Neville added, and at that the smirks disappeared as they looked between the fifth years sadly and with despair in their eyes.  
  
“ _But_ ,” Hannah said, holding up a hand as they began to open their mouths to speak, “we were wondering what your thoughts would be if we combined the first and second years so that Natalie and Graham could cover for us on the days when there is _no_ chance of us being there, with possibly another student not worrying about exams as much as us there to help out.”  
  
Graham and Natalie shared raised eyebrows while their friends began whispering excitedly at the prospect of getting to see their leader friends teaching.  
  
“There’s no problem with it on our side,” Graham said finally, turning to face Neville while Natalie nodded in agreement. Across the table, three second years were pumping their fists in the air.  
  
“Let’s try it tomorrow evening, then,” Hannah suggested, and the five second years all nodded in agreement, allowing Neville to let out a silent sigh of relief. He and Hannah hadn’t been sure if Graham and Natalie would agree to this, and it had been a worry for them, knowing how much more difficult their workloads were about to become.  
  
“See you later, Graham, Natalie,” Neville said as he and Hannah stood up to go let some of the others know of the arrangement. The second years just waved as they returned to their earlier conversation.

…

Lord Voldemort stood watching his followers as they began to prepare for their mission. Broomsticks were brought out, robes and masks were put on properly, and groups formed.  
  
Everyone knew his job tonight, and it was all Voldemort could ask for as he moved from his spot in the doorway to the front of the room, yew wand drawn.  
  
“Tonight,” he said in his voice that reminded most of snakes, “we retrieve our brothers and sisters from Azkaban!”

…

Bellatrix Lestrange cackled happily as her Dark Mark burned. The pain was her friend, something she welcomed proudly and with open arms. Nothing she felt from her Mark compared to what she felt from her enraged master, even after all these years.  
  
Pulling back her robe sleeve, Bellatrix looked down at the black Mark as it moved from side to side, almost enchanting her as her eyes followed the movement.  
  
As she watched, the movement began to gain intensity, the skull’s serpent tongue going from left to right so fast that it looked like a single, thick, immobile line rather than the thin, moving one it was. In her mind, Bellatrix could imagine the snake hissing loudly and intensely, an insistent tone to the hisses.  
  
Most wouldn’t know what the Mark’s movement meant, but Bellatrix understood it on a level that most couldn’t. It seemed to be a subconscious thought in her mind, slipping its way through her madness to be sure she understood it completely.  
  
Her master was coming for her.

…

Lucius Malfoy was the leader of the group that had been assigned to make sure the Dementors were on their side and would leave the Death Eaters alone. If they didn’t agree peacefully, each person in the group of seven could use a Patronus and knew they were to protect the prison with them.  
  
As they landed their brooms on the island, they slipped almost silently to a section of the island that Lucius remembered journeying to many times during the first war. It had become the agreed meeting place between Death Eater and Dementor.  
  
Just as they got to the spot, a group of three Dementors swooped to it, the coldness seeping into Lucius’s body growing more intense as he stood merely feet from the creatures. Still, he ignored it as best he could and bowed a little before speaking.  
  
“My master, Lord Voldemort, wishes for you to stay at Azkaban for a bit longer to keep your cover. Soon, very soon, the time will be right for you to enjoy yourselves upon the souls of those in Britain. For now, though, he requests that you pass along the message that we Death Eaters, led by the master himself, are here to retrieve our brothers and sisters from the clutches of the Ministry.”  
  
Lucius fell silent as the three Dementors turned to one another, talking in a way not even the Dark Lord understood. Within a minute, two of the Dementors had flown off in the direction of the prison, leaving the final to gesture with its skeleton-like hand for the seven men to follow it.  
  
Looking over his shoulder, Lucius gestured to his men, mentally scoffing at how they feared the Dementors even though it was obvious the creatures were on _their_ side. Still, his nod and gesture reassured them enough for the group to begin its trek to the entrance of the prison. From there, they could see Dementors gliding off to different areas of the prison, leaving the Death Eaters without Dementor protection.  
  
Nodding at the Dementor, Lucius pulled back the sleeve of his left arm and pressed a single finger to the Dark Mark resting there, sending a signal back to his master that the Dementors were out of the way.

…

Theodore Nott Senior led his group of fifteen men into the actual prison, their own mission in mind. The Dark Lord had just given them the go-ahead by burning all of their Marks at once, and after the instinctive wince, they had left their waiting positions immediately, knowing time was of the essence.  
  
A full week of studying the designs of the prison, stolen by Malfoy from the Ministry under their noses, allowed easy movement through the labyrinthine corridors, not a single person slowing down in confusion as they stalked forward silently, Silencing Charms having been placed on their feet.  
  
Suddenly, footsteps ahead of them made them all freeze, Nott’s left hand raised in the air, fingers out. When it became obvious that the footsteps belonged to a human guard headed in their direction, he gestured for all but two of the men to slip into the shadows, leaving the two Death Eaters to take out the man quickly, Stunning, Body-Binding, and wrapping him up in an instant.  
  
Once he had been moved out of their way, they continued on, stopping each time they heard a guard to bind them up as well.  
  
Finally, they reached a room deep in the middle of the prison, and they heard voices from within it.  
  
A smirk spread out on Nott’s face; the guards had no idea of what was occurring in their own prison.  
  
Gesturing to his men, they waited until Nott blasted the doorway in before streaming into the room, Stunning every man in sight. Once all were Stunned, Body-Binds and ropes were placed on them all. All the wands were collected from those met in the corridors as well as in here and were given to Nott, who destroyed them all with a quick fire he immediately put out once they were ash.  
  
“Go find the others,” he ordered, and all but one of his men nodded and left, sweeping silently through the prison to get rid of all the guards. The last man went through a storage area in the room to find the wands of their comrades, finding them easily and barely locked up.  
  
If only they could have killed them, Nott sighed internally, but their master had no said deaths. Not yet at least. Once the world knew the Dark Lord was back, they could kill all they wanted. For now, though, Stunned and tied up and without a wand was the best they were permitted to do. Too many deaths couldn’t be covered up, but captured and left unconscious could be.  
  
One-by-one, the men returned, wands in hand to prove their successes with various guards. Each wand was left on the ashes of the last batch, all destroyed once all fifteen men had returned.  
  
“We’re done,” Nott announced, pulling back his left sleeve to touch his Dark Mark to inform their master. “Let’s get out of here.”

…

Lord Voldemort reveled in the feel of a Dark Mark being pressed yet again. This time it was Nott’s, meaning Azkaban was finally ready for him and the group of five other men to enter it and complete the mission. So far, it had been a complete success, and Voldemort felt it would continue to be so with Fudge as Minister, denying his return as he was.  
  
Without a word to his men, Voldemort stalked to the stone building. He knew they would follow him without a word.  
  
Waving his yew wand at the double doors, Voldemort blasted each door inwards. They bashed into the walls on either side of the doorway. It left his way uninterrupted, though he caught sight of bound men against the walls among the shadows of the dark corridors.  
  
Finally, they reached the place where his Death Eaters were awaiting him, most gone with madness but still curable for fighting if he wished it. There were some looking eagerly at their master, and still others had pride shining on their faces as they realized they were being rescued by their master himself.  
  
After blasting each prison door open, he left it up to his men to attach a Portkey to each prisoner. He himself only had one extra Portkey, and he knew which follower would be receiving it as he made his way to the final area: the most highly protected section.  
  
As he opened the last few doors, Lord Voldemort stopped long enough to help each Death Eater from his Inner Circle to stand, taking in their weak, exhausted, and somewhat mad appearances. He knew they’d be able to fight within a few months, but it was a very lucky thing that he had Severus to brew up potions to help them recover from fourteen years in here.  
  
He finally reached the last cell in the prison. Inside was a woman with tangled, black hair hanging in front of her face, who was looking up at him with heavily-lidded blue eyes. The look upon her face was a mixture of adoration, awe, pride, and pure happiness.  
  
“Come,” Voldemort said, holding out a hand for his most-trusted follower, who took the hand without hesitation.  
  
He led her from the cell, and he saw one of his Death Eaters nod at him, informing him that they were ready.  
  
Voldemort handed Bellatrix his spare Portkey before pulling out his own in one hand and tapping it with the other, setting off the chain reaction of Portkeys going off, every single Death Eater feeling the pull behind their navels as they were pulled from the island, hopefully never to see it again.

…

Amelia Bones was awakened by a yell from her Floo, calling for her immediately. Standing, she pulled on a dressing gown and rushed to her fireplace, the face of Samuel Davis staring back at her, an unreadable but obviously bad expression on his face.  
  
“What is it, Samuel?” she asked quickly, and he took a deep breath before replying.  
  
“Amelia, I was just informed by Tonks, who was on duty tonight at the Ministry just in case because Harry’s scar has been hurting all day, that at least _ten_ Death Eaters have just been broken out of Azkaban not even an hour ago.”  
  
Amelia felt her blood run cold as the color left her face, her mind running as she realized how disastrous this could be for them.  
  
“How?” was all she could manage to ask.  
  
“Those at Azkaban didn’t even see the Stunners hit them,” Samuel reported, and Amelia understood.  
  
“Stunned, body-bound, and tied up with ropes?” she asked, and he nodded his affirmative. “Voldemort must have brought his entire force with him to be sure it happened quickly and quietly.”  
  
“By the state of the front doors of the prison and the wards, it appears Voldemort himself led this mission,” Samuel added, and Amelia started. Voldemort almost _never_ led an attack himself!  
  
“Get as many Aurors as you think we’ll need out there to be sure the other prisoners don’t use this chaos to escape,” Amelia ordered. “As much as I try, I’ll never succeed in getting the Dementors out of Azkaban, so tell the men to use Patronuses around them at all times. I don’t trust the Dementors, so the most I can do is have men there at all times.”  
  
“I’ll do it immediately,” Samuel stated. “We’ll have to meet at the Manor tonight,” he added, leaving the moment Amelia had nodded in agreement.  
  
Once Samuel had left her fireplace, Amelia rushed back into her bedroom to change. The Aurors needed their boss to be sure they got what she wanted done.

…

**_MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN!  
DEATH EATERS FREE WITH WANDS!  
BE ON THE LOOKOUT!_**  
  
_Just after midnight last night, ten very dangerous Death Eaters escaped from Azkaban Prison. The mass breakout left the prison’s guards Stunned and tied up and the prison wide open. Details of how the prisoners escaped are sketchy, and the_ Daily Prophet _has every reporter looking into the matter. The Ministry has no comment on this matter at this time._  
  
_There is no word on how they escaped, but every reporter is looking into it._  
  
_For information on each escapee, continue to pages 2,3,4,5,6,7, and 9._


	49. Chapter Forty-Nine

The silence in the Great Hall just after the  _Daily Prophet_ was delivered all around the room was deafening.

Harry sat staring at the front page of his own copy, sent to him by Samuel upon a request to the newspaper, apparently. Pictures of ten different, mad-looking people were staring up at him. The headline stood out with its capital letters, bolded font, and large size, unbelievable words silencing everything in moments.  
  
"How…?" he finally whispered, the shock wearing off as it all sank in: Voldemort had broken out ten Death Eaters from Azkaban the night before.  
  
Not a single person could reply, though Harry hadn't expected one. Every single person in the Hall was speechless and pale, including Umbridge.  
  
This was a terrible development.

…

The aftereffects of that February morning were felt throughout the entire school for years to come. Reading about a mass breakout from Azkaban, a place most had grown up thinking of as something to fear, made them all truly realize why Harry and his friends had been training them as they had been. It forced most of the school to think about _why_ they were training, and it strengthened every single person's resolve to train as hard as they could so that they could fight those who would eventually be attacking them in the future.  
  
In the weeks that followed, all the way up to exams, those teaching their fellow students would continue to be amazed by the dedication shown towards the training, allowing everyone to learn in leaps and bounds.

…

"Have you seen their improvement?" Daphne asked the group as they walked down to the Great Hall for a late supper after finally finishing a tough essay for Potions two weeks after the Azkaban breakout.  
  
"Yeah," Harry said, a sad tone in his voice that made Tracey put a hand on his arm and raise an eyebrow. "I just wish this dedication hadn't come from something to dark."  
  
No one could reply to that as they felt the same way, mainly about the first years. Tracey, though, looked Harry in the eye, and he recognized the look as one that said it had been necessary. He understood what she meant as it took realizing what could happen to get someone to prepare for it.  
  
"What's that?" Draco suddenly asked, pointing over the banister of the stairs to where a crowd was forming in the Entrance Hall.  
  
"Let's get closer," Theo said, rushing down the stairs and almost tripping down them in his haste to get close enough to hear what was going on, the others only going slow enough not to trip as they followed.  
  
At the banister on the floor of the stairs above the commotion, Harry and his friends stopped. They leaned over, most likely looking like innocent children peeking around something, to see that a crowd of students coming from dinner surrounding Umbridge and a professor they had never met but recognized as Professor Trelawney from her description. To Harry it seemed that Umbridge was overly smug right now about something, which became obvious as she informed Trelawney quite loudly that she had been fired and was to remove herself from the castle.  
  
"She's sick; she's truly sick," Harry muttered as he watched the Divination teacher burst into tears and Professor McGonagall walked over to the poor woman to help her stand. The others nodded in agreement around him.  
  
"Doing this in public…" Blaise added quietly as they watched.  
  
"We need to do something about her," Draco declared quietly, and Harry flashed his blond friend a look before turning back to the Entrance Hall, eyes widening as Dumbledore entered and introduced a centaur named Firenze as their new Divination professor.  
  
"What do you mean, Draco?" Theo asked as Umbridge stormed out of the Entrance Hall after seeing the centaur, heading towards her rooms. Harry led his friends to the Great Hall as they talked, listening with one ear while his mind thought of possible things to do to the toad.  
  
"There _has_ to be something we can do!" Draco exclaimed. "She's destroying Hogwarts, and we're doing _nothing_."  
  
"Not _nothing_ , Draco," Astoria said out of nowhere as she slipped into an empty spot beside him, grasping his hand in hers.  
  
"Where did you come from?" Daphne asked her sister, glaring at her slightly. Astoria just shrugged.  
  
"Anyway, we've got the HPs to worry about, Draco," Astoria continued. "If you think doing that is nothing, then you need a new definition of nothing."  
  
"He means he wants Tracey, Gin, and me to pull pranks, possibly with the twins helping," Harry sighed, swallowing a mouthful of potatoes. "Not yet, Draco, not yet."  
  
"Then when?" Blaise demanded, and Harry shook his head as if to say, _'I don't know, but we'll know when.'_  
  
"It had better be soon, because I can't stand much more of her," Theo muttered darkly, and the entire group had to agree.

…

Hagrid slipped out of his hut on March first in the early evening, headed towards the forest to visit his half-brother, Grawp. No one else knew about the giant, and Hagrid was hoping to keep it that way.  
  
Unfortunately, he didn't count on a certain Ministry spy to follow him into the forest, hoping to find something to get him arrested over if she could.  
  
So when they both got to the clearing where the young giant was being held, it took everything the toad-like woman had in her not to scream or gasp or make any sort of noise that would give her away. She then spent the next hour watching the pair in disgust, ideas already going through her mind on how to make this work for her the best.  
  
If she did this correctly, she could be made Headmistress the next day!

…

"Dumbledore!" Minister Fudge yelled as he barged into the Headmaster's office, Dolores Umbridge following behind her boss with a pleased look on her face. Just outside the office, four Aurors were waiting for orders, if there were to be any.  
  
"Yes, what may I do for you today, Cornelius, Dolores?" Professor Dumbledore replied, smiling at them both politely, his face curious.  
  
"What are you doing with a _giant_ in your forest?" Minister Fudge demanded. "And why is your Gamekeeper looking after the thing?"  
  
Professor Dumbledore looked at the pair, his smile gone even though his eyes were still twinkling slightly. The older man made no response, though, just politely waited for them to go on.  
  
"I saw it with my own two eyes, Minister, and you see, he's not denying that there's a giant in the forest!" Umbridge exclaimed, pointing at the Headmaster.  
  
"Yes, yes, I see that Dolores," Minister Fudge said, an unreadable expression on his face as he looked the Headmaster over. "You have been quite correct, Dolores; Dumbledore most certainly is not fit to be Headmaster if he is endangering the students by having a giant on the grounds!  
  
"That Gamekeeper will be fired from his jobs, and we'll bring back that substitute for Care of Magical Creatures. Aurors, two of you go arrest Hagrid! You other two, come in here and arrest Dumbledore!"  
  
Two men walked into the office while the other two left down the stairs.  
  
"I'm sorry Cornelius, but I cannot allow you to arrest my Gamekeeper, nor to take away my position as Headmaster," Professor Dumbledore said, standing, gesturing towards Fawkes with a hand. The Phoenix disappeared in a ball of flame to reappear in Hagrid's hut, taking him and some supplies to his younger brother so they could both disappear.  
  
"You are not fit to be Headmaster, Dumbledore!" Minister Fudge exclaimed. "There's been a lot of funny business going on at this school that I've turned a blind eye to, but no more! Your time here is done. Aurors, arrest him!"  
  
"Ah, I thought we might hit this little snag," Professor Dumbledore said, smiling slightly. "I accept that I might be gone from Hogwarts for a while, but I will not be going to prison."  
  
Before anyone could react, Fawkes reappeared, Dumbledore grabbed his tail feathers, and they disappeared together in another ball of flame.

…

"She's _way_ too smug up there," Harry commented as he and his Slytherin friends sat at a table where Ginny and the twins were waiting for them. "I wonder why it is this time."  
  
"Dumbledore and Hagrid are gone," Ginny told him, and all the Slytherins turned to gape at her.  
  
" _What_?" they gasped, encouraging her to give them more information.  
  
"Turns out Hagrid brought a giant back home with him when he got back," she said. "Umbridge found out about it and told Fudge. They both came here with a bunch of Aurors, trying to arrest them both, but Dumbledore got them both out of here."  
  
"And how do you know this?" Blaise asked suspiciously, looking at the three Gryffindors.  
  
"Peeves," the twins said together, and Harry nodded as he realized the poltergeist had seen the chaos this would bring about, especially as he didn't like Umbridge either. If the twins knew and could tell the other pranksters in the school, Umbridge's time at Hogwarts would become a nightmare.  
  
"Hey Draco," Harry said, turning to his friend, and the blond looked up. "You know that question you've been asking me for weeks?" Draco looked confused for a moment before realization hit and he grinned.  
  
"It's time?" he asked, and Harry nodded.  
  
"It's time."

…

Word that Dumbledore had been fired and replaced by Umbridge spread throughout the castle within hours, and fear was seen in many eyes at what Umbridge might do to the school with her newfound power. It was only the knowledge that they were undermining her with the Hogwarts Protectors that kept them calm as they continued on.  
  
Well, that and the quiet message spread around that the twins, Tracey, Ginny, and Harry were working together to make her life a living hell.  
  
Within the first day, dung bombs, smoke bombs, and basic hexes and jinxes had already started following Umbridge around the school without a single trace to lead her to who had planted them. The five pranksters had called upon students from all seven years to do basic hexes on her in the corridors to put her on edge while they planned the larger pranks for her.  
  
That evening, the seventh years entered their training to find Astoria, Daphne, and Blaise waiting to train them rather than their normal teachers, but not a word was said as their absence had already been explained without words being used.

…

"That's not a bad idea, but what about using this on the walls as well?" Ginny suggested, pointing out a spell in her personal notebook for prank spells. The twins were looking at the trio in front of them in awe as they watched them plan, finally realizing why they had never even been a challenge for the pranking trio.  
  
"Nice one, Ginny, but Fred, George, would this work with that idea of yours?" Harry asked, writing something down on the sheet of parchment that he banished to them with his wand across the table the Room of Requirement had given them in another section of it, away from the training, due to the fact that there were other students already in the Room.  
  
"Hey, this will work perfectly," Fred said as George wrote it down and began figuring out how to merge it into their plans immediately.  
  
"Hey, Harry, look at this," Tracey whispered, sliding one of his mother's journals to him to read. When he was done, the mischievous smile on his face was more worrying than before, and Tracey met it proudly.  
  
"Umbridge has _no_ idea what she's in for," Harry declared.

…

On the second day after Umbridge became Headmistress, everyone entered the Great Hall, saw the five pranksters were basically done eating as they talked casually, and began waiting impatiently for the excitement to begin.  
  
At the table, Harry was internally laughing at the tension and anticipation coming off the rest of the school in waves as they waited impatiently for the pranks to begin. He knew the others were the same way–just waiting for the prank to begin–but none of them said a thing about it.  
  
Finally, Umbridge, who had taken Dumbledore's chair at the Head Table two days previously, stood up. As she did so, a loud croak echoed around the room. Everyone froze as the source of the noise became obvious. Toads were streaming in from hidden little areas charmed to look like the stone floor all along the walls of the Great Hall, hopping up into the room and heading towards the Head Table.  
  
Umbridge was frozen in shock as the toads got closer and closer to her, the students waiting in a tense silence to see what she'd do. Suddenly, she whipped out her wand and slashed it in the direction of the toads, but all it did was make those hit by the spell multiply.  
  
Once the Head Table had been surrounded, toads lined up along the walls, settling down quietly except to let out a croak here and there as they looked around the room. Those at the Head Table suddenly hopped onto the actual table to get closer to the Headmistress.  
  
As the toads began touching the woman, she let out an earsplitting scream and forced the toads away from her as she tore out of the room, ignoring how the toads multiplied from her spell.  
  
Once she was gone, the students gave in and burst out laughing. Watching the panic on her face had been hilarious, and Harry could have sworn he saw the front of her robes were wet when she tore from the Hall.  
  
"How did you do it?" Theo demanded, but Harry knew he wasn't expecting an answer as they never gave away their tricks.  
  
"That's only the beginning," the twins said together.  
  
"Just you wait," Ginny continued.  
  
"We have a lot more to come," Tracey added.  
  
"And Umbridge is going to wish she never became Headmistress by the time we're done," Harry finished, and around them, those that heard were grinning happily, excited to see the woman get what had been coming all year.

…

Throughout the day, toads popped up wherever Umbridge went, staying within a certain area along the walls, only to hop towards her when she went back towards them. Her office and classroom were the worst with how much time she spent in them, another five toads appearing every hour she was in a specific room with one every six minutes no matter where she was.  
  
At times the toads were so loud that class was impossible to conduct if she was in the room, stopping all interrogations of professors so that the toads didn't appear in their classrooms.  
  
And, of course, Professor Umbridge's colleagues didn't know how to rid her of the toads, so they just allowed them to keep on appearing throughout the entire day.  
  
By the time everyone was in the Great Hall for dinner, Umbridge was surrounded by toads and flinched at every croak while the students tried not to snicker at her faces, usually failing magnificently. The other professors were seen suppressing smiles, even Professors Snape and McGonagall.  
  
The talk on the Journals, in dorms, Common Rooms, and The Den was all about the prank, which though they didn't know it, was set to stay for the entire week as other pranks were planned and set up.

…

After five days of the toads croaking around the school, the students were disappointed at the pranksters for being so quiet outside of their beginning prank. Of course, that had been one of the reasons behind waiting: it gave them a false sense of security before they were forced to keep on their toes again.  
  
That morning, when Umbridge entered the Great Hall, quite late for her, everyone stared at her in shock before laughter began with the eldest Gryffindors and quickly spread around the Hall.  
  
She had on neon green robes with the lower portion way too tight for her while the upper part was hanging off of her body. It obviously made movement uncomfortable for the woman.  
  
By the angry look on her face, she had tried everything she could think of to get them to stay off of her, but Harry knew that the twins had charmed those robes to always be worn today no matter what she tried, even acid or fire. They were also completely magic-resistant except to other prank spells, which Harry made sure was passed around the school so that she was still jinxed all over.  
  
The entire day, it was almost impossible not to be shocked, then amused by her hideous look, especially as her clothes finally matched the rest of her.

…

"This is going to amuse everyone," Harry whispered to Tracey, who nodded in agreement as they slipped away from Umbridge's quarters, the tripwire left outside her doorway ready to go off.  
  
"Let's get back to bed so that we won't look suspicious," she replied, though she knew Harry's silent response was that they could use homework as an excuse, so he didn't say it as it would be on her mind anyway.

…

There was a shocked silence as the Headmistress entered the Great Hall the next morning, silencing the professors as they looked to see what the resident pranksters had done this time. It confused them that the students were staring at the woman when she looked perfectly normal to them, but then it became obvious that they were staring at the air _behind_ her, not _at_ her.  
  
As students began looking between Umbridge, who was closing in on the Head Table, and Professor Snape, the teachers _knew_ something was going on, but they had no idea what.  
  
" _What_ are you all staring at?" Professor Umbridge demanded as the stares and silence became too much, whirling around with a finger held out and her arm up, as if about to tell someone off.  
  
That set the entire Hall off into laughter as the image of a large Professor Snape following her mimicked her perfectly, a scowl on his face.  
  
" _What_ is going on here?" she yelled over the din, and it only made the students laugh more as the image became Professor McGonagall, looking as she normally did while asking that question, her lips thinner than many students had even seen them but more relaxed than others had.  
  
Secretly behind the other students laughing, Harry, Ginny, and Tracey shared high-fives while the twins looked on in awe of their prank.  
  
"Which group do you think pulled the prank this time?" Professor Sprout asked Professor Flitwick, who looked out at the students to find the five pranksters, well known as two different groups.  
  
"I believe it was the trio, in this case," he replied in his squeaky voice, shaking his head in amazement. "They've done some sort of charm so well that we professors cannot see it, only the students. It's amazing as they're only a fourth year and two fifth years."  
  
"Harry certainly does take after his parents in many ways," Professor McGonagall added in, her lips twitching slightly as she watched the students finally begin to calm down only to start laughing again as Umbridge demanded to know what was so funny again.  
  
"Will there be a Hogwarts left when he leaves?" Professor Snape muttered, though his colleagues could tell he was greatly amused by Umbridge's position, even if he showed no outward reaction.  
  
"Oh, I believe there will be, though only because he wants there to be," Professor McGonagall said, and the others had to agree.

…

"Look at Flitwick jumping up and down just to keep up with her!"  
  
"Can you believe Snape is actually doing that?"  
  
"That is _definitely_ like McGonagall."  
  
Harry snickered at the comments following Umbridge as she stalked the corridors, trying her best to figure just _what_ was amusing the students so much about her.  
  
"How did you make it so that only the students can see it?" the twins demanded as they rushed up to Harry and Tracey, who just grinned and shook their heads. "Please!" they begged together, but the almost-twins just shook their heads at the twins and continued on down to dinner.  
  
"They're trying to get the trick out of you?" Ginny asked as she joined them at the table, the twins following behind the trio with their heads together, whispering quickly. "Don't they know not to even bother yet?"  
  
"I guess not," Harry said with a shrug, pulling some roast towards him as he filled his plate with food. "They've been trying all day."  
  
Up at the Head Table, the image behind Umbridge was looking around the room, mimicking the toad-like woman, image Snape's eyes narrowed just as much as the woman's he was following.  
  
"What's the next plan?" Tracey asked the other two, and all three shared a shrug.  
  
"Should we let the twins test out those fireworks of theirs?" Ginny suggested, and all three grinned slightly, before both girls waved a hand in Harry's direction to let him know that it was _his_ job to let the older pair know.  
  
"Why is it always me who has to talk to people like this?" Harry muttered to himself as he stood to walk a few seats over to talk to the twins, leaving behind two smirking girls.

…

Days of chaos followed that decision as teachers continually told their new Headmistress that they were unsure of their authority to get rid of the fireworks set upon the school. Getting rid of them was quite the challenge for the Headmistress and the Caretaker, Mr. Filch, and the professors did anything but help as they watched in amusement alongside the students.  
  
After that, all five pranksters worked to make large batches of the fireworks, the trio learning from the twins how to do it. In return, the twins were taught a few of the trio's more basic tricks such as mixing powders and potions together without either being ingested.  
  
It was the general consensus around the school that if the pranks didn't drive Umbridge crazy, they would leave her so close to a breakdown that something normal would set it off. This was something that amused most to no end.  
  
During training sessions, compliments were given to the five, and they were accepted graciously, but no secrets were told to non-pranksters about how everything had been done without the target's knowledge.  
  
Of course, as the last week of March ended, students soon realized that the nightmare Umbridge was now living in had only just begun.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So… The torment has begun. *Grins mischievously* This is one of the reasons I just couldn't get rid of Umbridge right away — I had to let the five pranksters have a crack at her first. Hopefully you've found both my pranks and the reason behind Dumbledore's leaving Hogwarts to be good. There will be more pranks to come after this, so sit back, relax, and get ready to see Umbridge driven insane. ;)


	50. Chapter Fifty

“Potter, stay behind,” Professor Snape suddenly barked out just a minute before the bell rang as the fifth years spoke quietly, potions all turned in and supplies cleaned up.

“Yes, sir,” Harry replied, but he was wondering why he had been asked to stay behind. While it was obvious to everyone in the school who was pulling off the pranks, there was not a single grain of proof. Other than the pranks and Hogwarts Protectors, which only the students knew of, there was no reason for his Head of House to keep him behind.  
  
“What did you do this time?” Theo asked quietly just as the bell rang, but Harry shook his head and gestured for them to leave. Once the room was empty and the door closed, Professor Snape spoke.  
  
“You aren’t in trouble, Mr. Potter. I just wished to offer you a chance for extra credit, and I knew the other students would create a fuss about it.” Professor Snape was at his desk, piling up a small bundle of papers, rolling them up, and tying them with a green ribbon before offering it to Harry, who took it mechanically.  
  
“Sir?” he asked, shocked.  
  
“When you open them, you’ll understand the project,” Professor Snape said. “I do not wish to see the potions themselves, as you’ll soon understand. Now, please leave so you may open the project away from my eyes so that I can claim I did not see you open those scrolls.”  
  
Harry, still a bit shocked, nodded and left the classroom, walking up to The Den, where he knew his friends would be waiting.  
  
“What happened?” Theo asked immediately from his seat on Tracey’s left as Harry sat down on her right, but Harry just shook his head, unable to speak as he stared at the roll of parchments in his hand.  
  
“What’s this?” Tracey asked, and Harry blinked before shaking his head to clear it.  
  
“I’m not entirely sure,” he replied, pulling off the ribbon to begin looking at the first parchment. As he read it, his eyes widened and he went to the next one in the pile, a smile growing on his lips with each he read. “No way,” he muttered, extremely pleased with what he was reading.  
  
“What?” Tracey demanded, leaning to look over his shoulder, and her eyes also widened as she grinned. “What were his exact words to you?”  
  
“Extra credit,” Harry stated, rolling up the scrolls into a single scroll and retying it as he met her eyes, excitement shining in them both.  
  
“Let’s find Ginny,” Tracey exclaimed, pulling Harry up and rushing off to find the final member of their trio.  
  
“Any idea what’s up with them?” Theo asked the others quietly as they watched the pair leave, but no one could do anything but shake his or her head in confusion.

…

“Are you _sure_ it was _Snape_ that gave you these?” Ginny asked as the trio brewed three different potions together in the Room of Requirement. Each had a different set of recipes written in Snape’s handwriting next to their cauldrons and ingredients while a chalk board the Room provided was covered in different ideas each of the potions could be used for.  
  
“Gin, for the last time, I’m _sure_ ,” Harry told her as he added a crushed unicorn horn to his potion, stirring it carefully as he used his left hand and wand to turn down the temperature of the fire. He was doing the more difficult potions as they all knew he’d make them best.  
  
“I’m sorry, but it’s just so _unbelievable_!” she exclaimed, and Harry laughed in agreement even as he watched his potion.  
  
“The twins would go crazy if they knew where we got these potion ideas from,” Tracey commented from where she was just letting her potion simmer while cleaning her supplies to make another potion once this one was done.  
  
“First we’d have to make them believe us,” Ginny informed her friend, and all three laughed at the image that brought up. “ _Then_ they’d most likely faint from the shock.”  
  
“Let’s keep this to ourselves, then,” Harry suggested with a grin as he added the last ingredient to his potion.  
  
The girls agreed with him whole-heartedly.

…

If anyone had been there, two different voices would have been heard snickering very quietly one night just outside of Umbridge’s sleeping quarters. On either side of the door were drawings that one couldn’t make out in the terrible lighting, and there was a faint scent that was disappearing even as two sets of footsteps were faintly heard going in the direction of the dungeons, though not a single person was seen.

…

“ _Who did this?!_ ” Umbridge demanded of the Great Hall the next morning as, along the walls, ten toads hopped along behind and beside her, croaking.  
  
No one spoke for a moment before a toad let out a loud “ _CROAK_!” That set the students off as it had happened just as Umbridge had opened her mouth.  
  
Through their laughter, those near the trio could see the laughing Slytherins and a Gryffindor just barely manage to share high-fives before collapsing due to their laughter, tears falling down their faces. The twins were seen laughing with a look of both amusement and some awe on their faces, as if unable to believe it was possible.  
  
At the Head Table, Professor Snape was caught by his colleagues smirking in amusement and with a small look of pride on his face. When asked, he just said it appeared his extra credit project had been worked on well, and he hoped the students continued to do it successfully.  
  
For the rest of the day, toads followed Umbridge around, and whenever she tried to speak, a toad would croak so that she fell silent and fumed. It appeared she had already tried to get rid of the artwork as she hadn’t done it once in the presence of students. The three pranksters could have told people that as they had only put four up on the wall, and the toads multiplied each time someone tried to get rid of them in any way, including potions, normal soap and water, and magic.  
  
By the end of the day, there were fifty toads following the woman as the students had guessed the truth and began trying to “help” their Headmistress get rid of the toads, only to snicker the moment she had gone away at the new toad he or she had brought about.

…

“Okay, I know everyone knows why we haven’t been here lately, but tonight we get to see how much you’ve actually managed to learn from our friends,” Harry told the sixth and seventh years as he faced them, Ginny and Tracey on either side of him. The older students were all smirking as they thought about the different pranks, but then they turned serious when Harry pulled out his wand, wands automatically being drawn by them all after months of training  
  
“Good, very good,” Harry said. “Now, please go through that door for another mock battle like just before Christmas. Let’s see how well you’ve learned. Daggers are permitted, but those are the only things besides wands allowed.”  
  
As the students went through the door, Harry knew the Room would be separating them into two teams randomly as he had asked.  
  
“Come on, let’s see how they do in the portion of Hogwarts we gave them to fight in,” Harry said to the two girls after they had all gone through, allowing them to enter the door that hadn’t been there just moments before behind them.

…

“This — this is Hogwarts,” Lee Jordan exclaimed as they looked around. “Why are we here?”  
  
“I thought it would be obvious,” Robert Weston of Slytherin drawled with an amused smirk on his face. “This time our battle is going to be taking place on the entire fourth floor of Hogwarts.”  
  
Lee Jordan suddenly grinned. “Perfect,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “Come over here, and I’ll start showing you some of the better secret passages to get around the fourth floor without being noticed.”  
  
“Wait!” Cho Chang called, stopping those who had started to follow the Gryffindor. “That’s good and all, but we need a plan for where to keep prisoners and a lot more such as how we’re going to attack. Obviously we’ll be using the secret passages for the attack, but we need to make more plans!”  
  
Those following Lee Jordan stopped as they all began to talk among themselves. Finally, they began to make plans as a group.

…

“You don’t spend time with the Weasley twins and _not_ learn some of the secret passages,” Angelina Johnson was saying with the other group, and many people agreed with her. “So, I think that we should booby trap them as it’s obvious Lee will be planning to use them as a way to attack.”  
  
“Then we can use some of the main passages to get to their sides of the passages and trap them all in the passages!” Ron finished with a grin. “That’s a great idea, Angelina. Come on, let’s figure out more to make this even better, like a way to pretend as if we’re going to use the passages as our own attack while it’s really just a spell to trick them.”

…

“That was a fantastic battle!” Harry informed the group. “The planning was interesting to watch, but I have to admit that you, Lee, were just a bit too obvious with using the passages for an attack. Angelina knew you would without thinking. In battle, when planning, you have to think of the obvious as well as something not as obvious, just as Ron did.  
  
“Still, Lee, Cho, you both did well with how you planned it. The other team wasn’t expecting you all in one passage, so it shocked them to realize they didn’t have enough people to take you out without backup.”  
  
“Remember, you learn something from every battle,” Ginny added. “We made this one take place in Hogwarts to make you realize that _knowing_ where you’re fighting can give you an advantage, but only if the other person doesn’t know the area just as well as you do.”  
  
“We especially want you to be able to tell us how you’d set up the fourth floor for battle if you had a list of traps and people with swords, daggers, and wands,” Tracey continued. “Harry will be handing you each a packet as you leave, and we want it filled out in exactly a week with how you’d set up the fourth floor. There’s a map on there with the key we want you to use. Until next time.”  
  
Harry handed out the bundles of parchment as each person left, and when they were gone, all three sat down on chairs the room provided.  
  
“They’ve improved more than I thought they would,” Harry commented, and the girls nodded.  
  
“The seventh years are basically ready for swords,” Ginny added.  
  
“After Easter,” Tracey stated, and the others nodded once. “It’ll give us another two weeks to be sure they’ve got the daggers down.”  
  
Sighing, Harry said nothing against Tracey’s words, but instead stood up and helped up both girls.  
  
“Come on, Trace, we’ve still got a pile of homework waiting for us,” he said, leading them from the room to go do something they’d rather not be doing.

…

While the twins had taken to handing out samples of their sweets that made a person sick for the students to use in Umbridge’s class to drive her up the wall, the trio had been preparing a sleeping potion for the new Headmistress, another potion waiting to be used.  
  
Finally, the sleeping potion had been administered at dinner one evening about a week and a half before Easter Break. It allowed the trio to sneak into the toad’s sleeping quarters without her waking up, almost silently dripping a potion onto her forehead with precision, keeping it only on the center of the forehead.  
  
They slipped out of the room unnoticed, taking a quick detour to the Gryffindor Common Room before heading down to the dungeons. The next day would be very interesting…

…

Umbridge wasn’t seen at breakfast the next morning, which caused both worry and anticipation in the Hall. It was unknown if there had been another prank the next day, hence the worry that she was up to something. One look at the pranksters, however, stopped all worry at their calmness.  
  
When the Headmistress was finally seen that day, laughter rang through the corridors from her classroom. Rumors then spread throughout the day as to why she had failed to make an appearance that morning.  
  
The teachers did not see their colleague until lunch, so it was quite a surprise for them to see a giant, heavy-looking spot on Umbridge’s forehead, so large it almost covered her entire forehead. Purple, pink, red, blue, and yellow all stood out among the different colors of her forehead, obviously part of the prank.  
  
“You wanna know the best part?” Harry was heard at lunch asking his friends. They most certainly _did_ want to know. “She thinks the spot is still tiny and covered with something so that none of us can see it!”  
  
Around Harry, students almost fell out of their seats laughing, realizing why she had been so confused by their laughter all morning.  
  
While huge and disgusting, just because the spot was on _Umbridge_ , the whole thing was hilarious. It was impossible for the students not to be amused by it all.

…

The next few days passed in peace and quiet, unless one counted the fireworks, dung bombs, smoke bombs, hexes and jinxes, and students getting sick every Defense class as loud. Other than that, it was all very quiet.  
  
Then Hermione entered The Den with a book under her arm and an odd look on her face. It took Harry a moment to realize the look was a mixture of amusement and determination.  
  
“Yes, Hermione?” he asked as she came up to him a bit urgently.  
  
“You need to see this,” she said as she placed the book on his lap, allowing him to notice the bookmark in it. “I was searching for a term for the Charms essay and — oh, just look!”  
  
Harry opened the book, realizing it was a dictionary of both English and Latin words. The page Hermione had left for him was in the “U” section, and as he trailed his finger down the list, it stopped suddenly. Reading the word and its meaning, he burst out laughing, the dictionary falling from his lap in the process.  
  
“Bloody brilliant,” he gasped out to Hermione, who was grinning smugly, both ignoring the odd looks they were getting.  
  
“Think you could have some fun with that at all?” she asked as he calmed down, and Harry looked up at her in surprise before the look feared by all who recognized it as his ‘ _I’ve got a brilliant idea, so you’d better run before I use it on you’_ face.  
  
“Oh, I’ve got a good number of ideas for this,” he told her, and Hermione looked pleased.

…

As the students entered the Great Hall the next morning, they looked at the wall behind the Head Table and blinked.  
  
There was an enlarged picture of Umbridge when she was upset by something hanging there, confusing them all as it appeared to be nothing more than a picture. Of course, the moment the final student entered the Great Hall and sat, the charms placed on the picture became obvious.  
  
Text had appeared on the bottom of the picture in neat, large, and very readable print.

Umbrage: To Take Offense.

Along the top of the picture above Umbridge’s head was her name, and it only took moments for the students to make the connection between the two words. Oh, the irony!  
  
The resemblance between the picture and the name was so obvious that even the professors were stifling laughter. It was as if the woman’s parents had _known_ she would grow up to be a woman who would take offense at everything, naming her accordingly.  
  
“Thank you for showing me that, Hermione,” Harry was heard saying as everyone left the Great Hall for classes. “The perfect laugh.”

…

Harry walked into the training room of the Room of Requirement and wasn’t surprised to see the twins in there, talking over a pile of notes.  
  
“No, no, it would look like this,” Fred was saying, gesturing to one of the many designs they were obviously arguing over.  
  
“Let’s ask Harry,” George decided. “Harry, which of these designs do you think would be best for the joke shop?”  
  
Looking them all over, Harry pointed to the one he liked the best.  
  
“If you add in this and this from these, though, it’ll be even better,” he added, pointing to a few specific pieces of other designs. “Anyway, I came here to ask you both something.”  
  
“What is it?” they asked together, setting down their plans for the joke shop to look at Harry.  
  
“Are you both planning to leave Hogwarts early?” he straight-out asked. The twins stared at him, their faces shocked.  
  
“How-how did you-?” Fred managed to utter, and Harry just grinned slightly before turning serious.  
  
“You forget I spend time with your sister, and the three of us have been watching you,” he told them. “You’ve been making plans the past few weeks, and we all know you’d rather not take your NEWTs if you can get away with it.”  
  
“Guilty as charged,” they said together as they shared a look and shrugged.  
  
“Unfortunately, I have to ask you not to leave early,” Harry sighed, and both heads snapped to look at him. “I wouldn’t ask it of you if I didn’t know for a fact that we need all the teachers we can get for the next few weeks.”  
  
“What do you mean?” Fred asked suspiciously. Harry snorted once.  
  
“Everyone knows _you_ won’t be revising at all for your exams,” he said, an eyebrow raised, daring them to disagree. They didn’t. “Most of the teachers are fifth years, and we all know that all of us will be revising for our OWLs. Unlike you both, our jobs will most likely require OWLs and NEWTs.”  
  
“True,” George admitted with a nod.  
  
“But is there a point to this?” Fred asked.  
  
“Without the fifth years, we have only Ginny, Luna, Maya, Astoria, Graham, and Natalie to teach those not revising,” Harry reminded them. “Graham and Natalie can work with the first and second years, most likely, but the third, fourth, and sixth years wouldn’t listen to them at all, and only the third years would listen to Astoria, for the most part.  
  
“What I’m trying to say is that we’re going to need the two of you to help teach the different years, especially the sixth years with Ginny. I wouldn’t ask, but six people can’t handle so many training sessions, not with their own homework and exams coming up.”  
  
“And you’re asking us because you know we won’t care about homework or exams,” George summarized, and Harry nodded. The twins shared a long look, obviously talking as Harry and Tracey did.  
  
“We’ll do it,” Fred finally stated.  
  
“But only because it’s you, Harry,” George added. Harry grinned in relief.  
  
“Thanks, you two!” he exclaimed. “That will make things a lot easier on the rest of us.” He paused for a moment before adding a thought that had come to him earlier that day. “You know, if you asked nicely, you might be able to get some of those you’ll be training to help with Umbridge…”  
  
The twins shared looks, grins slowly forming on their faces, and Harry knew he had given them a good idea.

…

“Harry!” Tracey called as she rushed to catch up to her almost-twin.  
  
“Hey, Trace,” he greeted her, smiling. “What did Professor McGonagall want from you?”  
  
Tracey grinned as she thought about the conversation she had just had with their Transfiguration professor after being held back at the end of class. It had been just as interesting as Harry’s conversation with the Potions Master over a month ago.  
  
“She said a perfect way to get extra credit _and_ Transfiguration practice would be to have some fun with Mrs. Norris, not that she named any names,” Tracey said with a laugh. “Also, if we use a bit more Transfiguration in our pranks rather than just Potions, who knows, our points might just rise a little.”  
  
Harry stared at Tracey for a moment, but Tracey just waited, knowing he was getting over the shock of _McGonagall_ saying things like that. Then the glint Tracey loved to see while most ran from it began to shine in Harry’s emerald green eyes.  
  
“Well, we wouldn’t want to disappoint a professor, now, would we?” he replied with a mischievous grin. “Where’s that cat?”

…

Filch’s screams could be heard all around the school as Mrs. Norris kept changing from a cat into a mouse every five minutes. In her office, Professor McGonagall wrote down a small note to herself, knowing that the small scrap of parchment would be full by week’s end.

…

As Mrs. Norris spent the Thursday before Easter Break covering the school in slime as a slug, Umbridge would jump at random moments.  
  
“Why is she jumping so much?” Blaise wondered aloud as she moved past the group of fifth year Slytherins, jumping when there was no sound anywhere.  
  
“Are you really asking that when there are five pranksters after her?” Daphne asked him in disbelief.  
  
“Oh,” he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. Daphne just shook her head sadly at him.  
  
“So, why _is_ she jumping all over the place?” Theo asked his girlfriend, whose hand he was holding.  
  
“What makes you think we had anything to do with it?” Tracey asked him with a raised eyebrow, but Theo just smirked at her.  
  
“When do you, Harry, and Ginny not have anything to do with a prank on Umbridge?” he retorted, and Tracey had to laugh at that.  
  
“True, true,” she admitted as she shared a smile with Harry, who was walking on her other side. Then they shared a silent conversation, mainly made up of raised eyebrows and tilted heads. Finally, Harry sighed in defeat.  
  
“We used a mixture of a potion and a charm so that she thinks she’s hearing noises all around her like centaur hooves, owls, and trolls,” he told the group, and they all began to smirk. “Soon… Well, just wait for dinner for the rest.” Harry was smirking along with Tracey, and the others now couldn’t wait for dinner.

…

“Stop,” Umbridge muttered, drawing a slight glare from Professor McGonagall, who had just been about to tell Professor Sprout about how one of her seventh year Hufflepuffs was doing.  
  
“Excuse me?” Professor McGonagall demanded, and Umbridge looked up.  
  
“Not you, Minerva,” Umbridge said, shaking her head and returning to her meal, leaving two professors looking at her in confusion and worry.  
  
Down at the table closest to the Head Table, a group of students were snickering, each of them looking at a three-fold book except for one Harry Potter, who was sharing with his girlfriend. His emerald Journal was sitting, invisible, under the Head Table near the Headmistress’ seat.  
  
“ _Shut up,_ ” Umbridge hissed under her breathe, glaring at her plate. “ _Shut. Up._ ” Her hands were tightening around her silverware as she fought to keep control of herself.  
  
“SHUT UP!” she yelled, throwing down her silverware and jumping to her feet. “JUST _SHUT UP_!!!”  
  
With that, the Headmistress tore out of the Great Hall, leaving a shocked and confused Hall behind. That is, they were confused until a voice was suddenly heard in the room, one they hadn’t heard before.  
  
“ _You’re a failure, Dolores,_ ” it said. “ _Everything you believe in is going to fall. You_ know _that your precious Minister is wrong this time. The truth will come out, and you’re going to take part of the blame for what you’ve done. You can’t deny it no matter how hard you try._ ”  
  
Slowly, the Hall realized she had been hearing this all throughout dinner. Those who hated her the most, especially those who hated her because she was on Fudge’s side and denied Voldemort’s return and Cedric’s murder at his hand, began to snicker at the idea of her hearing that and trying to deny it.  
  
Then, the snickers became chuckles and giggles, which quickly grew to quiet laughter, ending in full-out laughs, snorts and all.  
  
Not a single person could say she didn’t earn it.


	51. Chapter Fifty-One

Easter passed in such a whirlwind of revising and homework for the fifth years that they felt as if they barely had time to sleep and eat, let alone go to the Room of Requirement to train for half an hour a day like they had asked everyone staying at the school to do. Quills were made so dull that they had to be thrown out, twice, and huge stacks of rolls of parchment sat beside each fifth year, covered in dried black ink.

It wasn’t until late afternoon of the last day of break that the fifth years set down their quills and blew on their final essay that they relaxed, finally finished.

“ _Never again_ ,” Theo declared emphatically. “ _Never again_ am I doing that much work in a single week!” He was shaking his right hand, which everyone could see was half covered in ink, not that any of theirs were any better.

“I’d agree, but we don’t control the homework load at all,” Harry sighed, stuffing his books, essays, and writing supplies into his bag before tossing it onto the ground. He then stood and walked over to the couch in the Slytherin Common Room, collapsing onto it in a heap. “I’m so _exhausted_ from doing all of that work!”

“And people say homework can’t kill a person,” Theo muttered darkly. “I feel like my hand is going to fall off!”

“We all do, Theo,” Tracey sighed, still sitting at the table covered in crumpled up pieces of parchment and spare quills, empty ink bottles sitting in the middle. “This is probably the part of fifth year that the older students warn us about: Easter Break and onwards.”

“If we have to deal with any more of this, I’m going to contemplate taking only three classes next year,” Harry declared from his spot on the couch, Draco and Blaise on the one next to him while Daphne sat leaning against Blaise’s legs. Theo was still sitting next to Tracey, though he looked as if he wanted to join the others.

Taking pity on him, Tracey stood and sat on the third couch that made up the triangle they had made at the beginning of the break. He quickly joined her, Harry watching with some amusement but making no comment, knowing Tracey would retaliate by mentioning Ginny.

“If only we could take that few,” Draco groaned. “I believe it’s a minimum of five.”

“Why do teachers love torturing us so much?” Blaise asked rhetorically, his head hitting the back of the couch.

“I don’t know, but I’ll be _so_ relieved when this is _over_ ,” Daphne stated.

“Oh, are you all _finally_ done?” Astoria asked as she entered the Common Room, making her way towards her sister and friends. She had a bit of a smug look about her as she sat beside Draco, who had quickly scooted over make room, squashing a complaining Blaise. The blond boy ignored Blaise and put an arm around the third year’s shoulders, kissing the top of her head.

“Tori, if you don’t stop bragging about your lack of homework over break, we _all_ will make you regret it, even if it means tying Draco up after Stunning him so that he won’t interfere,” Daphne informed her sister without even looking at the young girl.

“Tracey and I would be quite willing to help,” Harry added somewhat brightly, his normal energy gone after so much work. Astoria turned to him, and he just raised an eyebrow in challenge, making her gulp as she shook her head quickly, some fear in her eyes. “That’s better.”

“Seriously, though, are you all finally done?” Astoria asked, her voice just curious this time, not teasing.

“Yes, we’re finally done, Astoria,” Tracey told her with a relieved sigh. Harry would have replied, but he was lying out on the couch with his eyes closed, falling asleep. “Oi! Harry, don’t fall asleep on us!” Tracey called, somehow standing up just enough to grab one of the balled-up pieces of parchment from the table behind her couch to throw at him. It hit him in the face, and he opened his eyes enough to glare at her.

“Lay off me, will you?” he groaned. “That Ancient Runes translation took forever! My brain hurts.”

“Daphne and I had to do it as well, remember?” Tracey reminded him. “I know how hard it was. That isn’t an excuse for falling asleep.”

“Nag your sleeping boyfriend leaning on your shoulder,” Harry muttered in annoyance, turning to face the couch with his back towards Tracey, pulling his glasses off his face to put them in his robes. One of his pockets was charmed not to allow anything inside of it to break.

“What? Theo!” Tracey exclaimed, and Harry heard his fellow fifth year jump, most likely looking around in confusion.

Fighting down a snicker, Harry let himself slip off to sleep, too exhausted to stay awake any longer.

…

“Career advice starts next week,” Daphne commented as a Slytherin fifth years sat down for breakfast the first day back from Break.

“We meet with Snape, right?” Harry asked, and the others nodded. “He should give us good advice, then.”

“Do you have any ideas for what you want to do after school?” Blaise then asked, an eyebrow raised, the others turning to watch for Harry’s answer. Harry had never spoken of any ideas, so he understood his friends’ incredulity.

“Yes, I do, in fact, have some ideas for after Hogwarts,” Harry stated. “Just because I haven’t brought them up doesn’t mean I don’t have them.”

“So…?” Theo egged, but Harry shook his head.

“Oh, no, if you all think like this, then I’m not saying,” Harry told them. “Now, when do I meet with our Head of House?”

“Wednesday, Mr. Potter,” the voice of the aforementioned professor said from behind him.

“Thank you, Professor,” Harry said, turning to nod at the man, who nodded in return and stalked out of the Great Hall.

…

“They’re doing well with the swords,” Harry commented about a week after Easter break, watching the seventh years go through their various katas with the blades chosen from the wall in the Room of Requirement. “Even only using them once or twice a week until the end of the year, they’ll be good enough to train on their own if they have a training dummy to help them.”

“It’s because they’re dedicated and focused,” Ginny said. “Kind of how the two of you were over the summer, or so I’ve been told.”

Harry just rolled his eyes, knowing it was Ginny’s way of teasing them.

Still, he did have to admit she had a point. He could remember the determination he had felt over the summer after Cedric had died and he had returned from Headquarters of the Order. The pace of his training had picked up, and he learned more in that single month than he ever had before in an entire summer.

It appeared the seventh years were doing the same. The most likely reason was the fact that their leaving Hogwarts for good had hit them hard as NEWTs got closer and closer, opening their eyes to the fact that they’d be open to easier attack for more than just two months shortly. They had two months before they left school to begin their lives, which meant a month and a half to train as everyone knew the fifth and seventh years would be too immersed in OWLs and NEWTs to surface long enough to train.

In the long run, they’d profit from working so hard now, but they would all begin to regret it in the beginning as their bodies protested, Harry knew, remembering the pain he and Tracey had been in at night. He would recommend using the Room to take a long soak in a bath before returning to their Common Rooms.

Otherwise, he’d let them continue at this pace. It would only help them in the future as they fought for their lives.

…

“Come in, Mr. Potter,” the voice of Professor Snape called from the other side of his office door at the time Harry had been assigned to discuss his future career with the man.

As Harry went into the office, he caught sight of the toad sitting in the corner on a stood, her clipboard in her arms and a quill held at the ready. Ignoring her for the most part, Harry placed his bag by the side of his normal chair and sat down in it quickly. Professor Snape had a small pile of parchments, each titled with the name of one of Harry’s fellow fifth year Slytherins. The one in front of the Potions Master had Harry’s name on it.

“So, Mr. Potter, have you given any thought to what you might like to do after you finish Hogwarts?” Professor Snape asked, and Harry nodded slightly.

“Since the notice of these meetings went up, I’ve been told suggestions by many, actually,” Harry said. “Only a few caught my interest at all, and most were only because I wasn’t expecting them. Four ideas stood, out, though, with one of them my own from no one else.” Harry paused and saw his Head of House nod for him to continue.

“One suggestion made quite regularly was that I become an Auror,” Harry said, and he heard Umbridge almost choke behind him. “Of course, I understand why they’ve suggested it, but I don’t think it’s the career for me. I don’t really want to spend my entire life chasing down Dark Wizards and upholding the law.”

Professor Snape nodded in understanding, his quill scratching something onto the sheet of parchment in front of him, most likely that the idea had caught Harry’s interest but didn’t seem right for him.

“Another idea was that I become a professional Seeker, which I admit is an idea I might see myself as doing if another career doesn’t come up for me,” Harry said, remembering his Quidditch Match against Viktor Krum the year before with a slight grin; it had been fun.

“Out of most of the players here at Hogwarts, you’re one of the few I can see going professional,” Professor Snape admitted, “and that’s out of all four Houses. It would be a good idea to keep that in mind as a backup profession if nothing else works out for you.”

“Professor, we both know I could get any job I wanted if I showed even a slight bit of interest in it,” Harry sighed. “I’d rather work for my job, though, and earn it on my merits.”

“Very true,” Professor Snape agreed, inclining his head slightly. From her corner of the room, Harry could hear Umbridge pretty much choking at their conversation. It wouldn’t surprise him if she interfered with her own opinions soon, especially with his next two ideas.

“Anything else?” Professor Snape asked, and Harry nodded quickly.

“An idea that has been suggested by others that caught my attention more than even Quidditch was becoming the Defense Professor in a few years after I gain more experience,” Harry said softly, and at that, Umbridge broke.

“He cannot become the Defense Professor! His Defense grades are _abysmal_!” she exclaimed, standing up from her stool, not that it made her any taller. “Besides, what experience does he have in teaching others?”

“She does make a good point, Mr. Potter,” Snape said. “What experience do you have in teaching others?” Harry knew he was curious as to why Harry even thought about the idea as they both knew Harry was probably the best in his year, if not the school, at Defense Against the Dark Arts when they had a good teacher.

“In past years, when we were required to learn a few spells during Defense, I helped my friends learn the spells,” Harry said. “And last year, for the final task, I spent quite a bit of time looking up spells, learning them on my own with help from my friends, and then teaching them what I’d learned. It helped me to internalize the spells by teaching my friends, so they let me. Their words on my teaching were along the lines of ‘This is the best lesson I’ve had in spells from Defense since we got here.’ Professor Lupin was good for Dark creatures, but he didn’t teach spells in third year.”

“And this peaked your interest in teaching others?” Professor Snape asked.

“Truthfully, yes,” Harry admitted. “I enjoyed watching some of my friends, like Neville, suddenly get the spells, their faces lighting up. It was very fulfilling and fun.”

“Very well,” Professor Snape said. “To be a professor at Hogwarts requires an Outstanding on both your OWLs and NEWTs in the subject as well as Exceeds Expectations on both sets of exams for the classes that have to do with the subject. For Defense this would include Charms, Transfigurations, Care of Magical Creatures, and Potions.

“From what your other professors have sent to me about your marks, you’ve got the grades necessary in all of the classes except Defense itself. However, if you prepare, you may find the exams different from the Defense class itself. Your Charms, Potions, and Transfiguration scores are ranging from a high E to a solid O, so you’re fine there. Care of Magical Creatures might be a course you need to study a bit more as you’ve got an E, but it’s wavering at times. Otherwise, you should be fine.

“Do you have any other ideas, or is that all?” he finally finished, and Harry blinked at the requirements for becoming a professor, though they all made sense. It took him a moment to clear his mind enough to reply.

“I actually had one more idea…” he said slowly. “It was my own, and I haven’t brought it up before, but I don’t really know the requirements for it, so…” Professor Snape nodded in encouragement, though his face remained blank. Only hours spent with the man allowed Harry to see his professor’s curiosity.

“Well, I was wondering if it was possible to perhaps be part of the Wizengamot,” Harry admitted softly, and he heard Umbridge choke again while Professor Snape’s face showed true surprise. “I want to make a difference on the Wizarding World, stop the prejudice like I have been here. The Wizengamot is the place to do it, so I want to at least try.” When Harry finished, there was a silence in the office for a full minute before Professor Snape could finally reply.

“Mr. Potter, I guess it will please you to know that there are seats in the Wizengamot inherited through generations, and the Potters have one,” he said, and Harry looked up in surprise. “You would have been invited, after finishing school, to join, set a proxy, or sell it to another family who wanted the seat.

“As it appears you wish to accept your seat,” — Harry nodded quickly — “I would suggest looking up and purchasing books on the Wizengamot as well as on the various laws. Speaking to your godfather, who grew up surrounded by these sort of politics as Heir to the Black fortune, would not be amiss either.”

“Thank you, Professor,” Harry said gratefully. The advice was very welcome.

From the corner of the room, Harry could hear Umbridge muttering, “If he becomes part of the Wizengamot and starts to change things, the Wizarding World is doomed to be destroyed.”

“Is that all?” Professor Snape asked, and Harry nodded. “Very well, you had best get up to lunch, then, as it’s about to start. And just so you know, Mr. Potter, if you join the Wizengamot, you will have the ability to have two jobs as long as your second job understands the situation.”

“Thank you for all the help, Professor,” Harry said with a nod and a small smile, picking up his bag and leaving the room, not looking at the toad at all.

…

“So, how did it go?” Theo asked as Harry sat down at the table in the Great Hall with his friends, who were already eating.

“Quite well, I think, though I surprised both Snape and the toad multiple times,” Harry replied with a smug grin.

“ _She_ was there?” Draco almost demanded while Theo sprayed the other side of the table with soup, fortunately missing any of his friends, and the others turned to stare at Harry.

“Oh, yes, wasn’t she there for you?” he asked, and the others shook their heads. “Well, she sat in the back of the office on a stool with her clipboard. Only interrupted us once when I mentioned the idea of becoming a future Defense Professor here. She was _outraged_ at the idea, stating that my marks were _abysmal_ in her class.” The boys were all laughing while the girls were trying to hold in giggles at the idea.

“So other than Defense Professor, what other ideas did you talk about?” Astoria asked from beside Draco, and the others stopped laughing at the questioned.

“I believe Quidditch came up,” Harry mused, looking up at the enchanted ceiling and tapping his chin as if deep in thought. He knew without looking that Draco, Blaise, and Theo were grinning at the idea. “The Auror Corps also came up, but that was mostly so that the idea was out there, not because I’m really thinking about joining.” Harry continued to stare at the ceiling, his hand now calmly on the table.

“Is that all?” Theo demanded, and Harry just watched a cloud slowly move across the ceiling.

“Harry?” Tracey asked quietly from beside him, her hand gingerly touching his arm, and he turned to smile gently at her.

“There was one more idea, but I’d rather keep it to myself for now,” he told the group, turning to look at his curious friends. “Now come on, I’m starved.”

He filled his plate and quickly dug in, knowing he had worried his friends a little as well as upped their curiosity at what other profession might have his attention. Sometime in the future he would tell them, but for now, they didn’t really need to know.

…

“So, are you going to tell us what your fourth idea for the future is?” Sirius asked with a grin when Harry used the mirror to call him the next day.

“The others told you with their Journals, didn’t they?” Harry sighed, not really all that surprised. He hadn’t told a single person, not even Ginny or Tracey, what his various ideas for his future were, so they had all been trying to get the ideas out of him for a week.

“Yes,” the voice of Samuel said from beyond the view of the mirror, and Harry had to smirk at Sirius’ pout aimed at Samuel. “Sirius, stop pouting at me and talk to your godson unless you want one of us to use the mirror.” The dog Animagus stopped pouting immediately, drawing a laugh from Harry.

“Are we going to hear your final idea, now?” Sirius asked, almost begging, as he turned back to the mirror. Harry tapped his chin in thought, trying to decide if it was worth it or not.

“Do you all promise not to tell the others if I do?” Harry finally asked, and he heard immediate agreements from six different adults. “Okay, Sirius, show me who else is in the room with you,” he demanded, and the others laughed as Sirius pouted before turning the mirror.

On a couch, Harry saw Samuel and Daniella waving, a few books around them. Amelia Bones was sitting at a desk in the corner of the room, paperwork in front of her, though she smiled at him when the mirror was facing her. Remus was sitting in an armchair across from one Nymphadora Tonks, both of them with tea in their hands; they had obviously been talking when he called.

“That’s better,” Harry sighed with a grin. “It was a surprise to hear six voices rather than four. Anyway, I was thinking of maybe taking the Potter seat on the Wizengamot.”

The other side of the mirror was in complete silence, but Harry had been expecting it and waited out the silence.

“Why?” Amelia finally asked, the first to recover. Harry knew she asked because she herself was on the Wizengamot.

“If there’s one place to really change the Wizarding World, to bring in new ideals, to perhaps stop prejudice and blood status, it’s there where Half-Bloods are slowly taking over as families are forced to marry Muggle-borns. I want to do more than just change Hogwarts like I have been. Plus, by the time I get to the Wizengamot and really begin making a difference, I’ll have classmates and other students from Hogwarts from right now also there, willing to help me.”

“The leader of the next generation,” he heard Remus say softly.

“He has some good points,” Samuel finally said. “Remember, Amelia, each generation has its own leader in the Wizengamot. For the eldest, it’s usually Dumbledore. You are the main one people turn to from our own generation alongside Lucius Malfoy. With how Harry is the leader of his generation at Hogwarts, there’s very little doubt that he’ll be their leader.”

“It might be better if Harry just accepts his role and joins the Wizengamot not long after school,” Daniella agreed. “If we get him the proper books and training, he’ll be ready by the time he’s done with school.”

“Plus, if Voldemort is gone, there would be no way someone would deny me entrance,” Harry added helpfully, painfully aware that his godfather had yet to say a thing and that the mirror had been purposely turned away from the man once he had declared the idea. “New ideas will be necessary then, and who better than the Boy-Who-Lived to give them?”

“I’d welcome you with open arms,” Amelia finally decided with a smile towards the mirror when it faced her. “Knowing how much of a leader you are, I say you’ll make sweeping changes for the better within the first year despite the opposition you’d face.” Harry grinned slightly.

“Sirius?” he finally asked softly, and the mirror turned slowly. His godfather’s face was completely blank, his gray eyes without their normal mischievous look in them.

“Do you really want to do this, Harry?” he asked, his voice monotonous, and Harry nodded once. “I guess I’ll try my very best to remember the lessons I grew up with, then, and I’ll teach you all I can. The library here should have all the books you need as I brought the entire Black library here, leaving copies at Grimmauld Place.”

Harry smiled hesitantly, and Sirius grinned slightly.

“I might not have liked having to learn all of this, but I can tell it’s something you really want to do, Pup, so I’m willing to help in any way I can,” his godfather declared, and Harry smiled fully, wishing he could hug his godfather right then.

“Let’s discuss getting some of the basic books to you now so that you have something to do when your exams are over or if you just don’t want to study for a while,” Samuel said, an amused grin on his face as Harry groaned at the idea of studying anything at all.

…

Snickers were heard around the Great Hall as Umbridge made her way to the Head Table near the end of April.

She glanced this way and that, unable to figure out what everyone was laughing at. Nothing in the mirror had appeared to be off that morning, so why were the students laughing? They had no reason to laugh!

At the various tables, friends from all years and Houses began whispering back and forth, asking one another if she knew what was on her face. Most were gathering that she had absolutely no idea about it, and it just made smirks grow and laughter ring louder around the Hall.

“Brilliant idea, you three,” George whispered from his table, leaning back on his bench to reach the younger prankster trio as he and Fred exchanged looks.

“Quite brilliant,” Fred agreed, leaning back as well. “It didn’t take much to make the potion to mess with her senses and ability to see it.”

“Very simple, but sometimes that makes the best sort of prank,” George finished as the twins sat up again.

“Wonder how long it will take for someone to tell her she has ink smudged all over her face,” Ginny said with a laugh, looking up at the toad-like woman with amusement.

“Oh, probably lunch at the earliest, sometime tomorrow at the latest,” Harry replied with a smirk. The ink smudged on her forehead, cheeks, and chin really did add an interesting effect to the woman, though it didn’t cover up her ugliness.

“If someone does, it’ll probably be Filch,” Tracey sighed, but her blue eyes were twinkling with mirth, obviously just as amused as the rest.

“’Course,” Harry groaned. “It’s like he’s in _love_ with the toad. They should just get married and leave us alone.”

All three sat frozen for a moment, then gagged slightly at the thought before bursting out in laughter of how that would look.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, my plan for Harry if he survives the war is for him to be a politician, and no, nothing you tell me will change this. At least I don’t follow the paths of many others who have him take his seat while still at Hogwarts. Any who are in line for the seats on the Wizengamot can only claim them once they’ve finished with school, and it is not mandatory — they may waive it off to a proxy or sell the seat to another magical family if they so wish.


	52. Chapter Fifty-Two

“That’s the third time they’ve sent you books in the past three weeks,” Tracey commented as Hedwig flew off, leaving Harry to slip the shrunken books into his bag before returning to his meal. “Those aren’t for our OWLs in two weeks, are they?”

“No, but they are for studying,” Harry replied around his mouthful of sausage. He said no more on the topic, and they fell silent until Draco spoke.

“So, which exam are we revising for today?” he asked.

“Potions,” Theo groaned. It was Theo’s worst subject, really, so Harry was forced to spend extra time helping him revise.

“If you actually paid attention to me, you wouldn’t be having this much trouble,” Harry said, shaking his head at his friend’s antics. “Besides, you’ll be thanking me for this so-called torture when you pass your Potions exam the second week of OWLs.”

“That’s just it, it’s the _second_ week, not the first!” Theo exclaimed, and Harry shook his head.

“The one weekend before the exam won’t be enough for _you_ to learn all you need to know,” Harry stated, and the others snickered as it was completely true. “If you revise more now, I’ll only make you do a short study session each day the weekend before Potions.”

Theo perked up at this, and Harry knew he had finally gotten a deal made with his anti-Potions friend. Tracey was grinning at Theo while shaking her head, knowing her boyfriend would be pleased by this. Beside Theo, Harry saw Blaise smirking in amusement. Of the rest of the group, Blaise, Draco, and Daphne were the best at Potions, which annoyed Theo to no end.

“Come on, we have Herbology,” Daphne finally reminded the group as they finished eating, and they all got ready for more plant revision.

…

Tired of revising and with training done for the evening, Harry pulled out one of the charmed books that Sirius had sent to him. This one was on the history of the Wizengamot and how it was founded. It was a lot more interesting than trying to read about the various laws, which, while he knew he would have to read about in the future, Harry was avoiding.

“What are you reading?” Maya asked as she walked up behind him, bending down a bit to place her chin on the back of the armchair Harry was resting in.

Jumping slightly at the sudden voice, Harry showed her the cover of his book. To him it said _Founding of the Wizengamot_ , but he knew Samuel had charmed it to read, _Transfiguration for Those Taking OWLs._ Hopefully Maya would take in the title and leave him alone, but of course not.

“I thought you had studied for Transfiguration yesterday,” she commented, and Harry sighed.

“It’s a good idea to make sure I’m completely ready as I need a good OWL in Transfiguration,” Harry said with a shrug, turning his head to look at the fourth year.

“You’re not really revising, Harry, I can tell,” Maya said, getting up and sitting on the armrest of his chair. When he went to deny it, she shook her head. “Harry, really, the others can’t tell, but I’ve seen charmed books way too many times not to recognize one. My parents charm quite a number of books so that Graham and I don’t look at them.”

“Fine,” Harry sighed, holding out the book for Maya so that she could grab it. By knowing it was charmed, all it would take was her holding it for a moment so that she could see the real book beneath the charm.

“The Wizengamot, Harry?” Maya asked quietly, her shock obvious. Harry reclaimed his book from her and nodded. “Why are you reading about that?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” he retorted, and Maya said nothing. He knew that she understood the reason, just wanted to hear it from him, but Harry wasn’t going to give her that.

“Seriously, Harry, _this_ is that fourth idea you and Snape talked about?” she asked, and Harry was grateful for how quietly Maya was talking.

“ _Yes_ , okay?” he said. “Please, just don’t tell the others. I don’t care if none of you approve.” He stood to go to his dorm, but Maya grasped his wrist before he could walk away.

“Harry!” she exclaimed quietly, trying not to make a scene. “I don’t think it’s a _bad_ idea, just unexpected because you’ve never shown an interest in the politics of the Wizarding World.” He sat down as she pulled on his arm, still on the armrest of his chair. “Seriously, I think it’s brilliant, and you’ll do some amazing things as part of the Wizengamot. You just need to give everyone a minute or two to adjust to the idea. It is kind of out of nowhere, you know.”

“I know,” he sighed, resting his head against the chair. “I’m just worried the others will make fun of me or something if I tell them.”

“Harry, some of them are going to be basically _forced_ into this sort of role in the future!” Maya hissed. “I know for a fact that Draco is still planning on being part of the Wizengamot once he’s left school, taking over for Sirius, and Theo will most likely take his father’s seat sometime in the future. Trust me on this one, Harry, most of your friends will be surprised, but then they’ll support and back your idea. You just have to tell them.”

“After our OWLs,” Harry decided. “Before then it will just distract them, and we all know Theo is looking for whatever sort of distraction he can find.”

Both of them smirked, but Maya also nodded in acknowledgement. Harry knew she would keep her silence until he told his friends.

…

Sunday morning, the day after the final, official Quidditch match of the year — not that there had been a chance for unofficial matches with Umbridge around, though everyone was hoping for a chance to have them next year — Madam Hooch called up the Slytherin Quidditch Team, Quidditch Cup in hand. Draco gladly accepted it and held it up into the air as the Slytherins cheered louder than the rest of the Houses, all of whom were being good sports and cheering for their win.

Gryffindor had won their final match, but it was by a score too low for them to catch up to Slytherin’s points; hence, the proud and happy Quidditch team around Draco.

…

“We should finish our revising early tonight so that we can sleep,” Susan said as most of the fifth years sat at a table in one of the study rooms just off The Den. They had been working all day in there, and it was nearing dinner.

“Let’s spend the time after dinner just relaxing, maybe play some Gobstones or Exploding Snap,” Neville suggested, closing the Potions book in front of him to rest his eyes.

“That’s a good idea, but I think Tracey and I should find Ginny and the twins instead,” Harry said, smirking slightly. “I believe the twins need some help with the toad. She’s been a bit less paranoid lately.”

“Let’s go,” Tracey agreed, packing up her bag and pulling Harry up from his seat. “I’ve got the perfect idea if the twins are agreeable.” They left the room, leaving their friends behind without a thought.

“I wonder what they’re up to this time,” Draco mused, a smile full of anticipation on his face.

“Whatever it is, it’ll be really good,” Hermione said. “They’ve been revising so long that they’re obviously going to be using this as a release.”

“Can’t wait,” the others decided before reluctantly returning to their studies.

…

“ _WHO DID THIS?!_ ” The enraged screech resonated throughout the school after dinner as the students were going back to their studies for the upcoming exams the next day. At the shout, every student ran towards it, leaving books and notes in their places.

Suddenly, they all froze. Right in the corridor that held Umbridge’s office and rooms was a swamp. A dank smell that made most pinch their noses wafted around the area as the mud and slime covered the walls. Flies were flying between the various cattails and grasses, just barely visible in the air. Small lily pads and some flowers decorated the swamp with colors.

Umbridge and Filch were spotted on the other side of the corridor, staring at the swamp in shock and disgust as well as anger.

Out of nowhere, a lily pad large enough for a human flew towards Umbridge, sweeping her off her feet and onto the lily pad. It then proceeded to land right in the middle of the swamp, taking all chances of escape from the woman as her wand had fallen from her hand back by Filch.

Her clothes suddenly changed color to a grayish-green, her skin coloring at the same time. Warts appeared on all visible skin, and most likely also on unseen parts of the woman.

Laughter rang throughout the school as they saw their Headmistress finally looking like the toad she was, even if she was still human.

A few corridors away, behind a tapestry, five students were laughing so hard they were in tears and could barely breathe. The well-known redheaded twins were leaning on one another to stay upright. Their sister was leaning against the wall, her open hand hitting it over and over. On the floor at their feet were the two Slytherins, the girl on her back and the boy on his front, both hitting the ground.

Using a spell created by Harry’s mother, the five had been able to watch the entire thing on Harry’s mirror.

When they could finally speak, Fred gasped out, “Bloody brilliant use for our Portable Swamps, Tracey.”

“If that doesn’t get people to buy them, I don’t know what will,” George agreed.

“How about the fact that I made a copy of the whole thing and that it can be made into a picture to show people what can be done with the swamp at your shop?” Harry suggested innocently, and the twins grinned at the idea.

“Brilliant!” they exclaimed together.

“A very nice way to let off tension right before the exams, don’t you think?” Tracey asked, and everyone agreed, still snickering slightly.

…

“Hermione, stop mentally going over your test to be sure you got it all right,” Justin commented as they left the Great Hall to go outside for the half-hour they had before lunch. “You did just _fine_.”

“Besides, Charms is one of your best subjects, which is saying something!” Neville added.

“Watch her get her eleven Outstandings back, proving that all of this panicking was for nothing,” Blaise muttered.

“Oh, we all already knew that one, Blaise,” Hannah commented, grinning a bit as Hermione spoke to Terry and Padma about the exam.

“Come on, let’s just enjoy the nice weather before we have to go inside until after the practical portion of Charms,” Harry sighed, settling down under a tree near the lake with the others, relieved that the exam was done. He felt that he had done well, having been able to answer every question without much more than a minute of thought on some of the tougher questions. Maybe he would get that Outstanding he was hoping for…

…

“That was simple,” Harry admitted as he met his friends that had already finished the practical in the Entrance Hall. “Color Changing Charm, Cheering Charm, Enlargement Charm, and a basic Animation Charm. I was expecting something harder.”

“It’s probably because we use tougher charms with the HPs these days,” Tracey commented. “To us, these are so simple we could probably do them in our sleep.”

“Good point,” Harry agreed, settling down against the wall as he waited for the last few to leave, Blaise being the final person to be tested as a Z. Harry felt a bit bad for Blaise as he didn’t think being last for anything done by last name would really be fun. Being near the end with a P was bad enough…

“How’d it go?” Theo asked Blaise as he finally exited the Great Hall, the rest standing to join the pair as they all headed up to The Den.

“Messed up my Shrinking Charm a bit,” he admitted. “The cloak I was shrinking got so small not even a house-elf could wear it when it was supposed to be the right size for a young child. Otherwise, I did well.”

“Oh well, you still did fine,” Daphne said encouragingly, and he smiled over at her.

“When are they going to give in and date?” Harry muttered in Tracey’s ear, and she giggled almost silently before turning to whisper back.

“Hopefully this summer,” she replied, “but let’s just hope they keep it away from the rest of us.”  
Pretending to gag silently, Harry sent them both into laughter, drawing odd looks from the others. Playing innocent as they looked at their friends, stifling their laughter, they got the others to shake their heads and leave them alone.

“Let’s hope for the end of summer, then, so that we don’t have to deal with them for long,” Harry told Tracey once they were both calm and almost at The Den. “I have a feeling they won’t be as sneaky about it as Draco and Astoria are.”

Snorting, Tracey nodded in agreement. “Of course, if they aren’t, they’ll get pranked by annoyed pranksters, right?” she asked quietly, and Harry grinned at the idea, pranks already flowing through his mind. “Wait until they’re actually together, Harry.”

“Aw,” he whined in her ear. “What if we prank them so that we can lock them in a room together, not letting them out until they’re dating?”

“That’s an idea, but not until halfway through the summer at the earliest, Harry,” Tracey retorted, before sitting down next to Theo on a couch in The Den.

“And what have you two been whispering about?” he asked, looking at the pair as Harry settled down on a loveseat next to their couch, waiting for Ginny to join him.

“Oh, nothing important,” Tracey told her boyfriend, and Harry internally smirked while getting out his study material for Transfiguration the next day.

…

“Are we actually going to study for tomorrow?” Theo asked as the group left the Greenhouses to head inside. They were all going to shower and change before meeting in the Room of Requirement for a break, maybe asking Dobby to bring them food so they wouldn’t have to go to dinner.

“Just glance over your notes in the morning before the theory, and you’ll be fine,” Harry told his friends. “We’re going to spend this evening training and having some fun running around.” Everyone knew that he meant as Animagi and grinned. “If you see the others, tell them to join us. Draco and I will go ask the house-elves if we can have our meal in there this evening.”

That got everyone to move more quickly towards their various dorms to wash off the grim of the Herbology practical they had just finished.

…

Metal clanged as Harry and Astoria dueled with swords, wands in their off-hands. Around them, the others were betting on who would win the duel, Justin agreeing to stay neutral and holding onto the money and various bets.

As Harry shot a Stunner at Astoria, the entrance to the Room opened. No one paid attention as students from various years slowly trickled into the room, standing in a newly created section of the Room behind a barrier. They were just staring silently, awed by the ability of two of their teachers with their weapons.

Astoria tried to use a Cutting Curse on Harry in retaliation for the Stunner, but he caught the spell on the hilt of his blade, breaking it apart as he then faked an attack from above Astoria’s head before slicing at her side. She blocked it and hit the sword away, aiming a kick that Harry dodged.

Silently, Harry conjured a bunch of little yellow birds to fly around Astoria’s head as a distraction. At the same time, he aimed a Cutting Curse at her leg as she waved her wand to get rid of the birds, hitting the shin at an angle.

“Argh!” she exclaimed, jumping backwards on instinct as she tried not to look down, obviously knowing Harry would attack the moment she did.

Launching five Stunners at Harry, Astoria then shot a healing spell at her leg followed by a numbing charm, just to stop the bleeding; she didn’t want to get faint from blood-loss. Once that was done, she jumped forward with her sword, trying to catch Harry off guard, but he just blocked the blow with his own sword.

Twisting his blade, Harry almost pulled the sword from Astoria’s hand, twisting her wrist painfully in the process. As the younger Slytherin backed away, her pain disappearing from her face as she hid it behind a mask, Harry reached down with the hand holding his sword, grasping a dagger from a hidden sheath on his leg, charming the dagger to remain invisible with his wand. He added a silent sticking spell to the dagger to keep it attached to his sword as well.

The duel continued as Astoria transfigured one of the small rocks around the pair that had gone unnoticed by all but the two fighting until then, bringing a tiger into the duel. Grinning, Harry just made a wolf out of a second rock, allowing the two animals to fight to get past the other. Looking annoyed, Astoria brought about three golden eagles at once, sending them diving at Harry.

“Typical,” Harry laughed, banishing one of the eagles into the other two before vanishing them, swinging his sword up to cut the Stunner sent at him in half. Astoria had Vanished the two animals that had been rolling around on the ground nearby, realizing they had been pointless.

Growling in some annoyance, Astoria shot fire at Harry, who conjured water before manipulating it to look like three animals: a wolf, a lynx, and a snake. The three animals charged at Astoria, who just barely froze them in time not to get hit by the concentrated water they were made up of. Harry then grinned and destroyed the ice, launching it at Astoria, whose eyes widened before she melted it, getting soaked by the water.

When she opened her eyes, which had closed on instinct under the deluge, Harry was right in front of her. Before she could react, he had used his sword to throw hers away from her and cast _Expelliarmus_ to send the wand flying over his shoulder. As Astoria tried to draw her dagger, he spun around her and held what appeared to be nothing in front of her neck, his sword having been spun in his grasp to get rid of her sword.

“I yield,” Astoria sighed, slumping down in defeat.

Before the eyes of those watching, Harry waved his wand to allow the dagger attached to his sword to be visible. They could all now see that it was lightly touching the younger girl’s neck.

“I YIELD!” Astoria yelled in annoyance when he didn’t move, and this time Harry backed away, using his wand to get his dagger off of the sword and sheathing both weapons before putting his wand in its holster.

“Good duel,” he complimented Astoria as she went to find her weapons and put them away.

“You as well,” she replied over her shoulder, grinning like crazy even though she had lost. “That was a smart idea, having your dagger attached to your sword and invisible. If I had gotten too close for your sword, I wouldn’t have seen it coming.”

“That was the point,” Harry admitted. “You were getting too close for comfort there.”

Laughing, they turned to face their friends but froze as they saw students from all seven years by the door, staring at them in amazement.

“Guys, we have some guests,” Harry called over his shoulders, realizing the others hadn’t noticed them either. “You guys can come in, you know; you don’t have to stay by the door.”

At that invitation, everyone rushed into the room, asking him and Astoria how they had fought like that, if they would learn all of that, and when they would get that good. Behind him, Harry heard his friends laughing, so he told the group that all of them could duel just as well as he and Astoria, sending most of the group in their direction.

“They’re not going to leave us alone after this,” Harry muttered in Astoria’s ear when he was given the chance to move up behind her. “Next year’s training will be quite intense.”

Astoria could do nothing but nod in agreement.

…

“Madam Marchbanks?” Harry asked after the theory for the Defense OWL, walking up to the head examiner.

“Yes, Mr. Potter?” she replied, looking him over.

“I was wondering if it’s true knowing how to produce a Patronus can get you extra credit on the Defense practical,” he said, obviously surprising the woman. “It was in a book I read, but since so few can do it at fifteen it isn’t usually offered.”

“Yes, it is actually true, but extra credit hasn’t been given for a Patronus since Professor Dumbledore himself,” she admitted.

“Can you tell the examiners to offer it to all of the fifth years, perhaps?” he asked kindly. “Some of us have been practicing this year once a friend of mine found the information in a book, hoping to perhaps get a few extra points.”

“I’ll instruct them to, Mr. Potter, but do not expect points for anything like just wisps of silver,” she said. “You need at least a semi-strong shield to get any points.”

“Thank you, Madam,” Harry said, just barely keeping his half-smirk half-smile behind a mask. “I’ll make sure to let my friends know so they can pick their memories.”

…

Around the Great Hall, Harry saw different Patronuses walking around as he entered. A fox showed that Draco was still in the room while a cat made Harry suspect Theo was somewhere in the room. The faces of the examiners as they saw the various levels of Patronuses ranging from strong shields to almost-formed animals to the Corporal Patronuses made Harry want to laugh, but instead, he just walked over to his examiner.

Sensing eyes on him, Harry looked up to see Umbridge watching from the doors to the Entrance Hall, a shocked look on her face at the sight of the exam even as she glared at him.

Grinning at her, Harry went through with his spells. Jinxes as easy as a tripping hex and as tough as a hex that allowed a person to throw someone or something high into the air were used as well as counters to many jinxes Harry himself used on pranks or during duels. Offensive and defensive spells were so easy that Harry was almost tempted to do them silently. Finally, he was offered the chance for extra credit with a Patronus.

“ _EXPECTO PATRONUM!_ ” he called, drawing the attention of all of his friends and those learning from him. In his mind, he pictured him and his friends at Marauder Manor, running around outside on the grounds, no thoughts of war in their minds.

Prongs galloped around the room, pausing by each of his friends to nudge them and those in the Journal group while passing over the four Slytherins not among the Journal group. He showed off for all of the examiners before stopping full-out in front of Umbridge, who was glaring at Harry’s Patronus like it was a disease. Finally, Prongs went back to Harry and waited a few moments before disappearing.

The entire Hall was in silence for a full minute before Harry was told he could leave. The fifth year Slytherin left with a grin on his face.


	53. Chapter Fifty-Three

By breakfast the next morning, news of Harry’s stag Patronus was known by the entire school. He just grinned and told people about Umbridge’s face when she saw it.

That Friday was Ancient Runes in the morning and Muggle Studies in the afternoon before the fifth years had the entire weekend to revise for the second week.  
  
About a month before OWLs had started, Professor McGonagall had asked in each fifth year Transfiguration class if there was anyone who wanted to take an OWL in a subject they weren’t actually in the class in. Theo and Blaise had added Ancient Runes to their list while the others added Arithmancy, though Harry and Tracey had agreed that having an OWL in Muggle Studies might come in handy and added it as well, mainly because they knew they didn’t have to revise for it.  
  
Now it was time to see if their tutoring of Blaise and Theo had worked. If they didn’t know too much of the exam, then it hadn’t done as well as they had hoped, but everyone in Ancient Runes had helped with the revising. Harry thought they would do well enough to get at least an Acceptable, if not an Exceeds Expectation, but it all depended on the two boys now.  
  
Luckily, in most people’s opinion, the Ancient Runes exam was only theory as there was no practical side to it until NEWTs, and even then there wouldn’t be a practical part to the exam as it was mostly just writing runes on different surfaces.  
  
The first week of exams was finally almost over, leaving only one more to go.

…

“There were a few questions I had to leave blank,” Theo admitted, “but I understood and could answer most of the exam. The revision really did help.” Blaise was nodding in agreement.  
  
“I’m glad you felt so comfortable with the exam,” Tracey said, wrapping her arm around Theo’s waist as they walked towards the lake.  
  
“It gives me hope that the Daphne, Draco, Trace, and I will do well on Arithmancy next Wednesday,” Harry added with a grin. “Now, Trace, you ready for Muggle Studies after lunch?”  
  
As Tracey nodded, Daphne said, “I still don’t know why you two are taking that one. You have no need for it.”  
  
Harry and Tracey shared a look, shrugging as they silently agreed to explain it to their friends _after_ the exam.

…

“That was probably the _easiest_ exam I’ve taken so far, and it was the only one I didn’t study for!” Harry exclaimed happily.  
  
“Was it really that simple?” Theo asked, and Tracey nodded.  
  
“Of course,” Harry said. “They were asking things like what are a television and a computer, who takes care of Muggle criminals, and how do Muggles put out fires. That’s all _really_ basic knowledge if you know _anything_ about the Muggle world.”  
  
“Why did you take that exam, again?” Daphne asked, and this time Tracey answered.  
  
“Because you never know when having proof from OWLs that you know about the Muggle world might be in handy in the future. Plus, because we didn’t have to study, all it did was take away three hours of our afternoon. It’s not like we wasted revision time preparing for it.”  
  
“True,” Daphne admitted, shaking her head. “I still say it’s ridiculous for you two to have taken it, but it’s done, so I’ll leave it alone.”  
  
Harry and Tracey just caught the other’s eye and rolled their eyes.

…

“We’re done!” Theo exclaimed as he escaped the dungeon classroom they had been taking their Potions practical in, cheering in relief. “I don’t have to revise for that evil course anymore!”  
  
Behind him, the others were laughing at his antics, though Neville looked just as relieved, Potions always having been a weakness for him.  
  
“I finally don’t have to force him to revise the one subject he hates even thinking about,” Harry cheered quietly as he laughed, a relieved and pleased look on his face.  
  
“How did your potion look?” Tracey asked, and he just raised an eyebrow at her. “Exactly how you expected it, eh? Mine was enough to pass, but I don’t think I’ll be taking NEWT Potions next year either, even if I do get the high enough grade.”  
  
Harry shrugged. “At least you’re better about not liking a class than your boyfriend,” he said, gesturing to the teen who was still punching the air in happiness, causing the pair to snicker again.

…

“You did really well with the creatures, Harry,” Justin commented, one of the few in the group to truly enjoy Care of Magical Creatures as he enjoyed learning about the various magical creatures in the world, even if it meant learning on his own. “If you did well on the written portion this morning, you might get an O on the OWL.”  
  
“Good,” Harry sighed in relief. “I need at least an E in Care of Magical Creatures to become a Defense professor, Snape said,” Harry explained as the others looked at him in surprise at his relief. “It was the one OWL I was worried about for that profession. Potions, Defense, Charms, and Transfiguration I’m good at, but this Care of Magical Creatures can be a challenge at times.”  
  
Everyone was silent after that admission for a few minutes.  
  
“Just two more OWLs after today, though,” Draco finally said to break the silence. “Astronomy and History are all we have left!”  
  
“Ah, yes, just two of the more boring and least needed ones to go,” Theo said, nodding importantly with a grin on his face until Harry hit him upside the head.  
  
“Some of us actually need History, Theo,” Terry stated. “Even if I don’t need it, there are people who need the course. Many jobs require at least an OWL in History.”  
  
“Yeah, but none of _us_ need it!” Theo pointed out.  
  
“Harry, please tell me you’re going to make him spend the next two days studying for History now,” Padma asked Harry, who grinned mischievously and nodded.  
  
“ _NO!_ ” Theo yelled. “ _NOT AGAIN!_ ” He took off running towards the castle, and they let him go.  
  
“Nicely done, Padma,” Hermione said as they all laughed once they heard the castle doors slam shut.  
  
“Thank you so much, Hermione,” Padma replied. “Now, let’s go look over out star charts and notes for tomorrow so that we can try to relax a bit tonight if it’s possible.”

…

Theo spent almost no time around Harry the next morning until Tracey took pity on her boyfriend and told him that it had been a joke to get him to stop. The group then spent the time between lunch and dinner revising the star charts they would be filling out that evening, their notes for Arithmancy that afternoon, and their notes for their History exam the next afternoon. They were going to all try to sleep in until nine and then meet in The Den by ten the next day to revise one last time, but they had an Astronomy OWL to finish.  
  
It was a pretty uneventful evening as the fifth years got from ten-thirty until twelve-thirty to fill out a star chart using their telescope. Harry looked down at the grounds and felt the normal feeling in his gut when he saw Hagrid’s dark hut, unoccupied since Umbridge had forced him and Dumbledore to run.  
  
Everyone was asleep by one in the morning, and after a good night’s sleep, they were back to last-minute note reading, as they had been doing the past two weeks.  
  
Harry spent most of the three hours given for the exam just answering questions, but with about half an hour left to go, his scar began to burn, slowly becoming more and more painful as the Great Hall warmed up. Using Occlumency as best he could, Harry pushed the pain aside and finished his final question as best he could.  
  
Turning in his paper so that he could leave, Harry slipped into the Entrance Hall and slid down the stone wall, his hands covering his burning scar as he fought tears of pain. Finally, Harry gave in and let down his barrier just enough to see what Voldemort obvious wanted him to see, though he didn’t know that Voldemort knew of the connection between them.  
  
_He walked through the familiar sight of the Ministry of Magic Atrium, though it was empty this time. Getting into the lift, Harry was taken down to a level he had only been down to once before. It was a bit of a surprise to be taken down a familiar corridor and through a door he recognized. He was then pulled into the circular room he remembered being in with an Unspeakable and Samuel Davis.  
  
A door opened, and Harry was led through another familiar room until he was in the Hall of Prophecy. Down the paths between shelves he went, dragged until he was at Row Ninety-Seven, just as he had done almost three years before. Before him was a sight he never wanted to see.  
  
Lord Voldemort was standing with his wand pointed at Sirius Black, who had a cut going down his cheek and blood falling onto his robes. Sirius couldn’t stand, and Harry could see one arm and one leg obviously broken while his robes were cut up in random places.  
  
“Take it for me… lift it down, now… I cannot touch it… but you can.” Sirius didn’t move, so Voldemort called out, “_ Crucio _!”_  
  
_Sirius’s screams were all Harry heard until Voldemort lifted the curse. His godfather was panting, his forehead on the ground as he breathed heavily._  
  
_“Lord Voldemort is waiting.”_  
  
_“You’ll have to kill me,” Sirius finally said._  
  
_“Undoubtedly I shall in the end,” Voldemort hissed. “But you will fetch it for me first, Black… you think you have felt pain thus far? Think again… we have hours ahead of us and nobody to hear you scream…”_  
  
Harry forced the images from his mind, his mouth full of blood from where he had bitten his lip to keep from screaming. His breath was coming in short pants through his nose, and he felt the sweat covering him drip down his face.  
  
“Harry!” Tracey’s voice called from across the Hall where the others were just exiting at the end of the exam. “Harry, are you okay?” she asked as she reached him, and he shook his head, spitting out the blood onto the stone floor next to him.  
  
Panting heavily now that he could use his mouth to breathe, Harry closed his eyes tightly. His mouth was stinging and his head pounding, but he knew he had to check, to be sure it wasn’t a trap.  
  
Reaching a shaking hand down, Harry opened the top of the small case on his belt, pulling the mirror out of it and trying to steady himself enough to use it.  
  
“Sirius,” he croaked out. Sirius’ face didn’t take long to appear in the mirror, and Harry didn’t even notice the others keeping everyone away from him.  
  
“Harry! What’s wrong?” Sirius exclaimed when he saw his godson.  
  
“Vision from Voldemort,” Harry gasped out, his body relaxing at the sight of his godfather. “He wants me to go get him the Prophecy, Padfoot. I just got a fake vision that showed him torturing you down there right by where Samuel took me. Tom was trying to trick me into going there.”  
  
Around Harry, everyone had paled at his words, now realizing why he had looked so terrible. In the mirror, Harry saw Sirius pale as well as he sat down, others gasping in the background as they heard his words.  
  
“Stay at school,” Sirius ordered. “I’m completely safe at the Manor. All of us are safe. Remus just checked on the Greengrasses, and they’re fine. We’ll take care of this news from here. Keep your mirror on you. We might ask you to go to Snape and pretend that you just saw this. Let us contact Tonks for a minute. I’ll call you back in a few. Get somewhere more private than the Entrance Hall while you wait.”  
  
Sirius disappeared from the mirror, leaving Harry to look around at his pale friends. They all knew what this meant, and it wasn’t good.  
  
“It’s starting,” he whispered.

…

“Enter,” the voice of Professor Snape called from his office as Harry stood outside of it, Tracey and Ginny helping him stand, both because he did actually need the help still and also to help the image they were trying to make.  
  
“What happened?” he demanded, standing swiftly to help the two girls sit Harry down in his normal seat.  
  
“Sir, we were out on the grounds after the History OWL, relaxing as we’re finally done,” Tracey began, “when Harry suddenly yelled out in pain and grasped his scar.”  
  
“He bit his lip to keep in his scream as best he could, drawing enough blood that he couldn’t breathe through his mouth without it spilling out,” Ginny continued. “It went on for at least five minutes, maybe ten, before he finally calmed down.”  
  
“After spitting out the blood, he finally gasped out that Lord Voldemort had sent him a vision,” Tracey added, gesturing for Harry to continue.  
  
“I was led down a corridor in the Ministry of Magic, through a circular room, and to a room full of glass orbs on shelves. At Row Ninety-Seven, I saw Voldemort with Sirius, torturing him to try and get Sirius to give him something he supposedly couldn’t touch. That was when I forced the vision from my mind,” Harry said weakly. “Professor, I know you’re in the Order. Please, help him!”  
  
“You both take Mr. Potter to his dorm so that he can rest,” Professor Snape told the girls. “I’ll inform those who need to be informed. None of you are to leave the castle. This will be handled. Thank you for bringing him to me.”  
  
“I knew it was what my parents would want me to do,” Ginny said, “since you’re in the Order with them.”  
  
Professor Snape nodded and helped them bring Harry to the door of his office. Once the door closed behind the trio, they could hear Snape moving quickly, obviously sending a message to Professor Dumbledore.  
  
With the girls helping Harry, who was quickly regaining his energy, the trio got to the Slytherin Common Room, where the door was open already with Blaise waiting to help. The four of them joined the rest of the colored Journal group in the fifth year boys’ dorm. None of the Slytherins had asked any questions as group meetings like this had happened once or twice before.  
  
“It was a success,” Harry said as he finally sat down on his bed, Draco holding his mirror so that Sirius could hear. “Dumbledore will find out within the hour and the Order will take care of it. We can relax and just wait for Tonks to get back to Marauder Manor to give us the news.”  
  
Everyone sighed in relief on both sides of the mirror. Now, they just had to wait.

…

Lucius Malfoy had been waiting with his fellow Death Eaters for hours for Potter to turn up. This was finally his chance to get revenge on the boy who had turned his son away from him. He had been forced to disown Draco, who had been a wonder son up until his master had returned, and Lucius knew he had but one person to blame: Harry Potter.  
  
It was finally around the time the Dark Lord had predicted Potter would turn up, and the ward they had set up outside the Department of Mysteries had been tripped by a single person not long ago. He was alone.  
  
A boy with messy black hair appeared at Row Ninety-Seven, his wand drawn as he looked around, his green eyes drawn to the orbs that were making his eyes almost glow. He finally stopped at the one with his name on it, and he reached out and grasped it. Finally.  
  
“Hand it over, Potter,” Lucius said calmly, stepping out of his hiding place and ignoring the twinge that meant the ward had been tripped again.  
  
“I don’t think so,” Potter said, except he said it in a girl’s voice. Before his very eyes, Lucius saw the boy turn into a grown woman with pink, spiky hair who reminded him greatly of his wife. “Harry’s at Hogwarts, safe and sound, and you’re all in trouble.”  
  
Out of nowhere, the shelves of Prophecies began to crash and fall, almost taking out the Death Eaters before they ran towards the exit, the woman — Nymphadora Tonks, if Lucius wasn’t mistaken — ahead of them. Figures joined her at the door and they ran.  
  
“Get them!” Lucius screamed, and they followed the various adults through the Department of Mysteries.

…

Tonks slipped the fake prophecy into her robes next to the other orb Samuel had given her with his memory of the prophecy in it in case Dumbledore asked for it. Then, she continued leading the Death Eaters to the Death Room, which was the largest room and best place to fight them.  
  
Dumbledore had said that he’d meet the Order there, or in the Atrium if they could get up there.  
  
Once in the room with the Veil of Death, Tonks turned and began throwing Stunners at the Death Eaters, ducking under their Cutting Hexes and Killing Curses. Other spells joined the mix from both sides, Death Eaters falling to Stunners and being revived by their fellows when the chance came.  
  
Growling at the sight, Tonks summoned all of the wands from fallen Death Eaters, snapping them in one motion before wrapping up the Death Eaters in ropes. She was so preoccupied by it that only the sight of a green light heading in her direction allowed her to dodge the Killing Curse sent by the single female Death Eater in the room. Tonks recognized her: Bellatrix Lestrange, her own aunt.  
  
“Hello, Aunt Bella,” Tonks called as she ducked another Hex from her aunt and sent a Cutting Curse in return.  
  
“So you’re the daughter my blood traitor sister had,” Bellatrix sneered, and Tonks just grinned as she continued to fire all the curses she could think of at her aunt.  
  
“It’s wonderful to finally meet you, though I wish it could have been under better circumstances, don’t you?” Tonks asked sweetly. She was trying to get Bellatrix angry, and it appeared to be working.  
  
“Why you little blood traitor!” Bellatrix yelled, shooting another green Killing Curse at Tonks, who dodged quickly.  
  
Suddenly, above them, a door opened. Screams from Death Eaters caught Bellatrix’s attention as her eyes widened and she turned to run.  
  
“ _Dumbledore!_ ” was heard all around the room as the Death Eaters were suddenly rounded up, only Bellatrix getting away in time as she took off.  
  
“Bellatrix is getting away!” Tonks called as she took off after her aunt, wand held tightly in hand as she rushed to the Atrium.  
  
When she got there, Tonks dodged yet another Killing Curse. They began to duel again, but Tonks could tell she was a bit outmatched and took refuge behind the fountain in the middle of the Atrium.  
  
“Giving up, my little niece?” Bellatrix taunted. “Give me the prophecy and I’ll let you live to duel me another day.”  
  
“It’s been destroyed, Auntie,” Tonks replied with a grin, her Occlumency allowing her to feel the probe being used by an unknown force, so she sent a picture of the orb still in her pocket falling to the ground and breaking into pieces as she ran from the Death Eaters to the probe.  
  
“You lie!” Bellatrix yelled in desperation.  
  
“I’m not, and your master knows it, Auntie,” Tonks said, still grinning as the probe disappeared. “It’s gone, and you failed.”  
  
“Master, it wasn’t my fault!” Bellatrix called, seemingly to herself.  
  
“I know,” a voice hissed, and Tonks knew that Voldemort himself had finally arrived. “Lucius is to blame for this,” he continued. “Now, come out, little Auror, and fight your enemy.”  
  
Before Tonks could even think of a reply, a blast of water from the fountain above her was sent flying at Voldemort, and Tonks turned her head to see Dumbledore had arrived in the Atrium.

…

“Dumbledore,” Tom Riddle hissed as Dumbledore stepped out into the open.  
  
“Tom,” Dumbledore returned, remembering when he had been just an unsettling eleven-year-old boy Sorted into Slytherin just as another unusual boy had been five years before. The differences were startling, though, and Albus Dumbledore knew deep down that he had nothing to worry about from Harry Potter, not when it came to his fear of him turning into the monster that stood before him.  
  
Instead of talking, Tom waved his wand to create a snake made of fire, launching it at Dumbledore, who used the water to put it out before shooting the water at Tom again. Tom froze the water and shot it back at Dumbledore in pieces that would have impaled the Light wizard had he not melted the water before it got even close to him.  
  
As Dumbledore animated the statues from the fountain, he saw Tonks Stun Bellatrix Lestrange out of the corner of his eye. Tom screamed in anger, sending a Killing Curse at Tonks, which Dumbledore intercepted with the golden statue of a house-elf.  
  
Furious, Tom conjured a snake and hissed at it, sending it towards Dumbledore, who banished it into the glass around the security booth, destroying the window and the snake. Dumbledore then made a fire whip from his wand, waving it towards Tom to wrap him up.  
  
Tom just barely put out the fire in time before summoning the glass shards to banish them towards Dumbledore, the points all aimed at the Headmaster. A wave of his wand allowed Dumbledore to turn the glass into sand, its original form.  
  
Before either could attack again, voices were suddenly heard from all around the dueling pair, unconscious Death Eater, and hiding Auror. The Ministry workers had arrived, the Minister at the forefront of the group.  
  
Growling, Tom summoned Bellatrix to him before Portkeying out of the Ministry. The Atrium was in ruins and Tonks had just stood up to look around. Ministry workers were gaping at the sight in front of them while Minister Fudge appeared to be speechless.  
  
“He — he’s back,” Fudge finally managed to stammer out.  
  
“I have been saying this for the past year,” Dumbledore declared. “If you go down to the Department of Mysteries, you will find my people with Death Eaters ready for arrest, among them Lucius Malfoy, just as Mr. Potter claimed last June. Now, I will join you in your office for half an hour, Cornelius, but no more as I have a school to return to and run.”  
  
Cornelius Fudge could do nothing more than nod in agreement and lead the way to his office.

…

“Voldemort appeared at the Ministry,” Tonks said as she stepped out of the Floo in Marauder Manor at about five in the morning. “He and Dumbledore dueled until the Ministry workers we alerted arrived, Fudge among them. Fudge was finally forced to admit that Voldemort is back.”  
  
Amelia smiled from where her head sat in the fire, listening from her office to a full account of events. Around the living room, Sirius, Remus, Samuel, and Daniella were smiling.  
  
“He won’t be in office for more than a week,” Amelia declared. “At the most the Ministry and Wizengamot will wait until after the school year ends so that those who work at Hogwarts or with schedules similar to that of the school can be at the meeting. That’s when I’ll present our evidence against Umbridge and get her kicked out of not only Hogwarts but the Ministry as well.”  
  
“Dumbledore is Headmaster again,” Tonks added. “He didn’t even wait to ask for it, just declared it. He’ll be back at Hogwarts sometime soon, I believe. By the time the students wake up, they’ll have Dumbledore in his normal seat in the Great Hall, smiling down at them.”  
  
“We’d best let you go, Amelia, while we get Harry on the mirror and let him know what happened,” Remus decided. “This will both make him worry and allow him to relax now that his exams are done.”  
  
“I’ll talk to you all soon,” Amelia agreed. “And Tonks, Samuel, you both should know I’m keeping the second Auror training area a secret, saying that the Aurors had been sent to other countries to be trained in time. We’ll try to recruit from the new offers and the seventh years. I hope to see you both in the office today, though, to help keep it calm.”  
  
“We’ll be there by nine,” Samuel promised.  
  
With that, Amelia disappeared from the fire and the people left in the living room collapsed in relief.


	54. Chapter Fifty-Four

Everyone was surprised to see Harry awake and reading a book at eight in the morning when they woke up, but he had been up since six when his mirror vibrated on its place on top of his bedside table.

“Let’s go eat and receive the _Daily Prophet_ Samuel ordered for us,” Harry told them with a grin, closing his book and shrinking it so that he could place it in his pocket. He would say nothing more on what he knew.

As they began eating in a somewhat full Great Hall, the owl post came in, bringing with it a newspaper full of news that Lord Voldemort — though they still called him He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and You-Know-Who — had returned.

“You _knew_?” Tracey demanded, and Harry grinned as he nodded.

“I was woken up at six in the morning with the news by Sirius. If I had to wake up early, I felt you all could wait ten minutes for the paper,” he said, and the others were obviously annoyed but they couldn’t deny he had a bit of a point. “Anyway, you can use the mirror this evening to call them. I want to just spend the day outside by the lake relaxing and swimming. OWLs are _done_!”

Everyone laughed at his happiness as he threw his hands up into the air in celebration. Around the Hall, everyone saw how relaxed they were and realized they had known this for the entire year, so it wasn’t really big news.

When Professor Dumbledore walked into the Great Hall during the middle of breakfast, when most students were finally there, a cheer went up around the room, especially as Umbridge wasn’t in the Hall. No one knew why she wasn’t there, but they didn’t really care either.

…

“What are you reading, Harry?” Tracey asked as he pulled out his book from that morning and began reading it while he leaned against their normal tree. They were going to go swimming in a bit, but they wanted to relax still.

As he held it up, most were surprised to see it was on the law system of Britain’s Magical World. Grinning, Harry went back to reading it, trying to at least finish his paragraph before the reactions began. He just barely made it in time.

“You’re planning on doing something with law?” Hermione demanded, and Harry closed the book as he sighed, nodding.

“You’re planning to accept your seat, aren’t you?” Draco asked, realizing the truth. A few pairs of eyes widened, but most were confused by Draco’s words.

“Yes, though I hadn’t known about it until I spoke to Snape,” Harry said. “And what Draco means is that, once I’m done with school, I’m going to be accepting my seat on the Wizengamot.” The Purebloods nodded while those who hadn’t known about the seat blinked and tried to process the idea.

“I want to make a difference,” Harry continued after a moment. “Changing the way the Wizarding World here in Britain is run and the various laws is something I can and will do in the future. It will mean studying for the next couple of years to be ready for the position, but Sirius is going to help.”

“You’ll have the House of Black behind you,” Draco declared with a grin of his face.

“The House of Nott as well,” Theo agreed. Harry had pulled him aside to inform him that his father had been captured the night before, meaning he would inherit the seat when he turned seventeen and left Hogwarts just as Draco and Harry would.

“If you’re planning to do this, I’ll ask my grandmother to train me, even if it means dealing with her toughness for hours on end,” Neville stated. “Longbottom will follow you.”

Around Harry, his various Pureblood friends all began to agree, and he was touched by their support. Those who couldn’t back him in the Wizengamot still gave him their encouragement and said they’d help how they could.

“And Harry proves to be the Alpha of us all,” Luna sang just loud enough to be heard by them all, silencing them.

“She’s right, you know,” Hannah mused quietly. “You’re not just the Alpha of the colored Journals but the entire next generation.”

“Our Alpha!” the twins exclaimed, each wrapping an arm around Harry’s shoulders as they grinned. Harry elbowed them to get them to let go.

“Not another nickname,” he groaned. “At least this one is better than those the public give me…”

The others laughed in amusement before settling down to relax and talk about anything and nothing.

…

“You called for me, Professor?” Harry asked as he settled down in a chair across from Professor Dumbledore in the Headmaster’s office.

“Yes, Harry, I did,” Professor Dumbledore sighed, unable to look Harry in eye. It gave Harry an idea of why he was there, and it didn’t please him very much, though he would keep his anger down for now. “There is something I should have, perhaps, told you many years ago.”

“Why didn’t you?” Harry asked, knowing without a doubt now that it was the prophecy he had known about since he was twelve going on thirteen.

“In the beginning, it was because I was afraid you might turn out like Lord Voldemort did,” Professor Dumbledore admitted with another sigh. “He was known as Tom Riddle, as you learned in your second year, and he was a Slytherin like yourself, an orphan. His interest was Dark Magic and gaining followers to become more powerful. He only wanted power, Harry.

“I’m afraid I thought you might be like that when you were Sorted into Slytherin. It took me a while to realize you weren’t like him, but I still couldn’t be sure. He was such a charming and dangerous young man, and I had to know if you would follow in his footsteps or not. The way you went against me and left your aunt and uncle’s home… it scared me. That action reminded me of Tom Riddle.”

“ _Anyone_ would have done that if they wanted to get away from a home where the people living there didn’t love him!” Harry exclaimed, unable to hold it in any longer. “It’s better to be loved and enjoy life than to be hated and brought down just to be protected. You were trying to deny me that!”

“And I admit I may have been in the wrong by placing you with the Dursleys,” Professor Dumbledore said, and Harry snorted. _Might_ have been? “Still, it did not help when you disappeared with Miss Weasley into the Chamber of Secrets, especially when I found you had hidden your Parseltongue ability. Of course, saving your young friend did help as it showed you had a penchant for saving people. That was one thing Tom Riddle did not have.”

Harry’s anger and frustration began to mount as he realized Professor Dumbledore truly had not seen he wasn’t Tom Riddle for years after meeting him _just_ because he was a Slytherin and not his Golden Boy. Still, he kept quiet, listening and allowing the flame to build.

“Your third year came around and you suddenly come to me knowing about Peter Pettigrew without an explanation of how, as if you had known the entire time,” Professor Dumbledore continued. “Yes, Mr. Malfoy did claim it was his father, but you both were not truly friends, so why would he tell you? It did not make much sense.

“Finally, we came to fourth year,” Professor Dumbledore sighed. “You somehow were entered into the Tournament, and what was I to believe but you might have done it yourself? Still, I let you prove you hadn’t and had to admit you were innocent. As the Tasks went on and you created The Den, I began seeing you were both powerful and intelligent beyond what classes had shown. You were most certainly charming and resourceful, with spell knowledge and the ability to fight beyond your years.

“Yet, you helped the others during the Second Task and agreed to sharing the win with Cedric.” Here, Harry flinched, remembering his dead friend. “Finally, though, my proof that you were different came when you said no to Lord Voldemort’s offer of joining him to get your parents back. He would not have done that, nor would anyone only after power.”

Professor Dumbledore sighed and looked at the ceiling of his office while Harry internally steamed. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing! _Five YEARS_ had been spent uniting the school and getting rid of bias and prejudice, yet it had taken the Headmaster _four_ to get past his blindness and worry enough to see this?!

“Then Minister Fudge began to interfere, and I realized I could not be seen with you, so I had to hold back even more,” Professor Dumbledore continued, neatly stepping over his kidnapping of Harry over the summer, Harry noted. “Now, though, you informed Professor Snape of your vision, and you deserve to know what the vision was about.”

“You mean the bloody prophecy?” Harry snarled, and Professor Dumbledore’s shocked blue eyes locked onto Harry’s furious emerald green ones. Harry was shaking with anger, barely staying in his seat.

“Yes, _Professor_ , I know all about that bloody prophecy!” Harry exclaimed. “The orb you’ve been protecting all year? Yeah, it’s a _fake_! I heard the whole thing _three BLOODY years ago!_ ”

Harry felt some smugness at the completely shocked look on the Headmaster’s face, though he was also slightly guilty for yelling at him like this. Pushing aside the guilt, Harry continued on.

“I’ve spent _five YEARS_ doing what _no one_ has _ever_ been able to do: unite the Houses! Yet _you_ , somehow, have the ability to look at that and see Tom Marvolo Riddle in me! You — you, I don’t have enough words to describe what I’m feeling right now after hearing all of this! Ginny has told me _all_ about one Tom Riddle, and I know for a fact that I’m _nothing_ like him. You’ve seen only what you want to see, Professor, not what’s really in front of you.” Sometime during that, Harry had stood up angrily, a glare on his face.

“So I’m not your bloody chess piece to control! It doesn’t _matter_! I’m a person, not something for _you_ to control, just as I’ve been saying for _years_! Every time I tell you, you ignore me. Bloody hell, you even went far enough to _kidnap_ me last summer, turning the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix against the friends I left behind when I escaped!

“It’s as if you believe you control everyone in the world no matter what. Who’s the Dark Wizard, Lord Voldemort — or _you_?”

Harry was panting, and Professor Dumbledore was staring at him, his face showing the pain Harry’s words had caused him. It didn’t matter to Harry, though, as he knew that Professor Dumbledore had needed to hear those words, needed to be torn apart by someone. Maybe now he would be more willing to work with Harry, to listen to Harry, but only time would tell.

“Unless you have anything else to add, Professor, my friends are waiting for me,” Harry finally said into the silence his words had left behind.

“You may go,” Professor Dumbledore said softly, his eyes closed.

As Harry passed Fawkes, Professor Dumbledore’s phoenix, the phoenix let out a soft trill that made Harry feel as if he had done the right thing.

Though he didn’t know it, Professor Dumbledore felt the exact same thing from Fawkes’ trill, making him rethink a great many things from over the past few years.

…

“What’s wrong?” Ginny asked softly as Harry finally collapsed onto a thin, soft mattress suddenly underneath him after attacking a punching bag for at least a half-hour straight.

“Dumbledore,” Harry muttered. “He finally wanted to tell me to prophecy but explained the reason he waited so long was because he didn’t trust me until after the Final Task last year when I denied Voldemort’s offer. I just got so furious at him…”

Harry trailed off, and Ginny went to lie down on the mattress beside him, wrapping an arm around his waist despite the smell of sweat on him. It was something one got used to after so much time training.

“Harry, we knew he was holding it back from you,” Ginny said softly.

“We thought it was to protect me,” Harry reminded her, “not because he didn’t trust me.”

“Still, Harry, you need to calm down,” Ginny sighed. “Dumbledore is one man, not a god, not Merlin. He’s human and can make mistakes, _does_ make mistakes. Unfortunately, it’s usually others who feel the effects of his mistakes before he does. Knowing you, you made him realize and truly feel his mistakes with you. Next year, when we come back, you’ll go to his office when he calls, and you’ll let him talk. When he’s done, knowing you, you’ll give him one last chance to work with you, even if you do sometimes run from his office in anger or cut him off. You’ll still work with him.”

Harry sighed, knowing she was right. Wrapping his arm around her waist, Harry kept his eyes closed and put his nose in her hair. They just lay there like that until Tracey came to find them, agreeing that a swim sounded like a good idea when it was brought up by the third member of their trio. The meeting wasn’t mentioned at all between the three of them, and no one ever asked how it went.

…

Standing in the Room of Requirement, Harry couldn’t help but feel a bit sad to be looking at the seventh years in front of him. They would be leaving in just three days, and they had all agreed to meet one last time so that goodbyes could be said between teachers and students. Beside Harry were Ginny and Tracey, and he figured they felt the same way.

“It has been one hell of a year,” Harry declared, and most of the room laughed. “Umbridge is gone and will most likely be arrested over the summer, Fudge will be sacked, the truth is out, and Dumbledore is back.” Everyone cheered, and Harry let them, taking in their grins.

“The thing is, you won’t be coming back,” Harry continued when they calmed. “After this, you’ll rarely grace these corridors again, and in two days you’ll be saying goodbye to the Journals for good.” Many students looked quite sad about that, but they knew it would be the tradition.

“Still, there is a war, and it’s about to get a lot worse. None of us want to leave you all without protection or a way to get help, so we’re not going to.” Ginny and Tracey each held up a dragonhide bag that Harry knew was expanded on the inside to hold what they needed.

“Tracey and I have spent some time here and there since Christmas creating necklaces for you, asking her father to make a Portkey in the shape of the Hogwarts crest that will take you to the home I used to live in before last summer. It will be kept stocked with food and clean, and those I live with will be alerted so they can help you. If the necklaces burn in a single, sudden, burst, it means Voldemort is attacking Hogwarts and we need you here.”

As Harry spoke, Tracey had been passing out the necklaces, which were on leather cords like those they had used for the Journals, small pendants hanging from them. Each seventh year immediately put them on.

“And what Ginny has is every single sword and dagger owned between the Black, Potter, Davis, and Greengrass vaults,” Harry said, gesturing to Ginny. “Tonight, you try them all until you find the one that is most balanced for you, as many of you won’t find the perfect sword and dagger. I didn’t. Still, you can continue to train with them yourself or with friends. If you wish, I have a list of charms that can be used to create and animate a dummy to train with.

“Please, accept these as our gifts for you as you leave Hogwarts. Use them well.”

Ginny opened the bag and allowed Harry to charm the swords and daggers to fly out and stick to an empty wall that the Room had created. As the seventh years began finding their weapons, they took turns walking up to the trio to thank them, giving all three a hug.

When, an hour later, they were all ready and the weapons had been put away, the only thing any of the three could say was, “Goodbye, and good luck.” No more needed to be said.

…

In the special room off The Den, almost the entire school stood by as the seventh years, one by one, kissed their Journals and gave them to the leader of their House in Harry’s year. Harry took each Slytherin’s and put them into the Slytherin case, the names wiped from the black Journals the moment they touched his hands to be put away.

When they were done, no one cheered, but the seventh years were hugged as more goodbyes were said to them. The next day was the day they left Hogwarts for the summer. In September, the new first years would be welcomed with open arms even as the seventh years were remembered.

Turning his back on the goodbyes, Harry looked up at Cedric’s Journal, picture, and plaque.

“Cedric, basically the entire school is united,” he whispered softly under his breath. “You’d approve, I know you would, and part of this was done in your memory. You’ll never be forgotten, Cedric, never.”

An arm wrapped around his waist as he looked up at the Journal, and Harry knew it was Ginny without turning to face her, the smell of flowers he associated with her reaching his nose. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, Harry led her from the room, proud of what he had accomplished, sad at the leaving of the seventh years, upset by why he had succeeded at his goal so early, and just plain worried about the war that was both coming and already here.

…

“Another year, gone,” Professor Dumbledore said as he looked around the room. Harry noticed the Headmaster was careful not to look him in the eye. “Seventh years, your lives are just beginning, but please, be careful. Lord Voldemort is back, and a war is coming.” Harry was proud that not a single person besides the four not in training had flinched at the name.

“Hogwarts will always be open to those in need of a place to go. Remember that. Now, I believe we all know which House has won the House Cup, so please give Slytherin House a round of applause!”

The entire Hall broke into the applause, the Slytherins cheering for their win and the rest being good sports about it with smiles.

“Dig in!” the Headmaster called as the noise began to calm. Instantly, the anticipated feast began, appearing on the platters in the middle of the tables.

“It’s so different from years past,” Harry said with a grin. “Usually it’s only polite clapping from a few people when another House wins, yet now it’s just friendly competition between the Houses that doesn’t cause much rivalry anymore.”

“All because of you,” Draco declared with a grin, raising his goblet to Harry, the rest copying his example, making Harry blush slightly at the praise.

All around the Hall, students were eating and chatting happily. For this one evening, Harry knew, they were pretending the outside world didn’t exist and that there was no threat. So, he went along with the flow and began laughing as Theo retold some of the stories of the best pranks on Umbridge from that year.

As pudding came to a close, a loud bang was heard throughout the Great Hall, smoke filling the room. When it finally faded, everyone stared at those nearest them before looking at everyone else. Finally, the Hall was full of laughter, especially when they caught sight of Harry and Tracey.

Everyone in the school had been changed into black animals. Snakes were slithering all over the Slytherin table, badgers crawled under the Hufflepuff table, eagles were flying above the Ravenclaw table, and lions roared from the Gryffindor table. Up at the Head Table, the teachers were all owls.

Of course, Tracey and Harry were snakes, but they weren’t black. Harry was pure gold, and Tracey was crimson red. Above them were fireworks with the words _Scarlet and Gold_ written with them, two arrows pointing down at the Slytherins.

“Now I don’t feel so bad about doing this,” Harry muttered to Tracey as he touched his wand, which he had left next to his plate to activate his own prank in a minute anyway, with his tail, silently activating their prank.

Another bang was heard, and when the smoke created by this one went away, everyone began to laugh again while Harry looked proud.

The twin he knew was Fred was silver while George was emerald green, both still lions. Above their heads was a sign that read:

Fred and George Weasley!  
Known as Silver and Emerald!  
You’ll both be missed!

The twins laughed as they recognized Harry’s work, standing up proudly on the Gryffindor table just as Harry made himself high enough to be seen on the Slytherin table, Tracey beside him but not trying to be seen. The three pranksters all bowed to the ones who had done the pranking before calling up Ginny and Tracey, allowing all five to bow to their opponents, Ginny standing on a different section of the Gryffindor table to bow to her older brothers.

All around the Hall, everyone was laughing even as the prank finished and they turned back to humans in odd positions, the five pranksters still bowing. The coloring disappeared with the animal shapes on all four.

It was a good way to end the last End of Term Feast the Weasleys twins would ever be there for… unless they snuck in.

…

“The Ministry is a mess,” Susan told the group as they sat in their compartment on the Hogwarts Express, headed home. “Auntie says she’s living at the Manor for extra protection because both the Ministry and Wizengamot want her as Minister, so my parents agreed to let me stay there again while they take a trip to America for the summer. They’ll meet me at the station to say goodbye, first.”

“It’s going to be quite the summer, isn’t it?” Hermione asked, and the others nodded.

“I just wish Mum would let me at least _visit_ you guys, but she said _no_ again because it’s _isn’t safe,_ ” Ginny groaned, mimicking her mother’s tone almost perfectly, in Harry’s opinion. “Like I don’t _know_ that, already! She’s treating me like I’m _three_ , not almost fifteen!”

“She just wants to protect you, Gin,” Harry said softly, wrapping an arm around her and kissing her head.

“I know, Harry, but it drives me insane that she’s doing this,” she sighed. “Luckily the twins will be staying with you while visiting us at Headquarters, so they can pass on gifts and notes and stuff.”

“Expect the Order to be checking anything the twins bring in,” Draco warned, and Ginny rolled her eyes.

“They won’t get caught,” she said with a smirk. “There’s already an idea in place for how to do it. We’ll be fine.”

…

“I’ll see you on September first,” Harry told Ginny as they said goodbye on the station.

“Just as long as the Order doesn’t try to kidnap you again,” Ginny said with a laugh, and Harry snorted.

“Let’s just hope they learned their lesson,” Harry declared before bending down to pull Ginny into a kiss.

Watching them, their friends were smiling at the sight as it wasn’t something the pair did in front of others often. Sirius was proud of his godson for finding someone so obviously good for him. Remus just smiled as he remembered the year he had taught them and their interaction. Samuel and Daniella were just shaking their heads in amusement.

The twins were being forced to stay quiet by Ron, who was smiling slightly. Their mother was beside them, an Order guard with her, looking at her little girl sadly, realizing she wasn’t so little anymore and that she was keeping Ginny from someone she obviously loved, even if they hadn’t admitted it yet. Still, there wasn’t anything more she could do.

As Harry and Ginny pulled apart, Harry wasn’t thinking about the war or the prophecy or the Horcruxes or anything else that he knew he would have to deal with in the future. No, he was just thinking about his girlfriend and how much she meant to him, even if neither showed it often.

Fin… For Now…

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That’s it, Return of an Alpha is complete. Dumbledore now realizes that Harry was never truly like Voldemort, Harry’s upset with the man, Fred and George got pranked one last time, and the school year is finished. Next up are the final two years of Hogwarts with more Hogwarts Protectors and pranks and homework and war.
> 
> I will see you again in the next story of the series, Clash of the Alphas. Hopefully I'll post it soon, but we'll see how fast I manage to edit the formatting.


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